Time for a Run?

How Change Happens

(This piece was first published earlier this week in the BHL Coaching newsletter. Newsletter archives and subscription details here)

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Years ago, I led a Bible study for teenage guys in Southern California.

I did it the way I was trained. We sat in a circle. We read part of the Bible. We talked about it.

Typically, they did not care much for it, and I wasn’t convinced they were getting much out of it.

Then - one day as I was preparing to lead the discussion around some verses that talk about ‘running the race' and ‘receiving the prize’ - this thought hit me:

If we really want to ‘get’ this passage into our lives any meaningful way, maybe the best thing we could do is…

…just go on a run together.

I also knew that to capture the full truth of the passage meant ending in a way where they would not just theoretically imagine the reward/gift but actually feel, experience, and even taste the goodness of running for and towards something of great worth (even if - especially if - there are many aches and pains along the way).

We need to do a breakfast banquet at the end of the run! I thought.

I did not tell the guys about my idea. I only told their parents, and then proceeded to pull them each out of bed on Saturday morning and into my car.

Surprise! I told these skateboard-loving, never-ran-more-than-PE-required teenagers. We’re running this morning!

You can imagine the sheer joy.

I then drove them to the SoCal foothills for a 1.5-mile run alongside me.

To this day, I still recall the unique mix of exhaustion and stunned excitement on their faces as they rounded the final turn and saw the concluding surprise - a breakfast banquet (I had help ensuring that was cooked up and provided while we were running).

Then and only then did we discuss that week’s Bible passage about running the race and the prize.

Can you guess the energy and insight level of that reflection space?

(blurry photo from the post-run breakfast banquet)

For years, I received an occasional communication from one of them about that Saturday morning.

And, truth be told, it remains quite memorable for me - in significant part because it was the first time that I realized that if we are seeking to change, form, or shape ourselves and the people around us - we must find ways to help them (and ourselves) embody the most important truths and values.

We will not think our way into a higher version of ourselves or our organization.
We will not reflect our way into new levels of success.
We will not round-robin discuss our way to transformation.
And certainly we will not ruminate our way into anything (aside from more anxiety)

It is only when our deepest truths and values are…

embodied,

acted upon,

and experienced

…that they grow and glow.

If you are a leader…

How are you opening space for people to embody your organizational values?
How are you doing the same for yourself?
How are you then celebrating those (however imperfect) moments?

If you are a speaker…

Where in your keynote/workshop do you provide space for audiences to not simply listen-and-receive insights but to practice-and-embody them?

If you are a facilitator…

Well, you get this intuitively. All great facilitation is about opening space for those gathered to ‘run’, ‘sweat’, and celebrate together.

If you are a person who believes in continually growing…

When was the last time you came across an idea in a video, book, or article… and then somehow acted upon it?

Oppositely, when was the last time you made a call, did a thing, or took the next action step…and that proved the way that new insight and growth happened?

—

Is 2025 still your year of…

Transformation?
Impact?
Making waves?
Honoring centrally important truths?

Surely then - in some form or another - a radical bias toward continual, embodied action is the road.

Having others alongside you helps a lot, too.

Many years later after the breakfast banquet run…this photo was taken just minutes before a 2-mile ‘fun run’ this past December - with a post-finish line full of cookies and hot chocolate. Guessing this recent father-son event will, likewise, prove far more memorable than all of my well-intentioned insights, exhortations and advice…