I sent out a few more queries to agents last week.  I got invited to a play on Saturday and decided to just have the weekend to myself.  I ran part of my burrito mile, watched the rest of the event, celebrated with the girls who broke the girls relay record and then watched the play and hung out at the after party.

Just having a restful “me” weekend is usually the best way to rejuvenate yourself.  I made people so excited when I brought in so much extra money to donate to the burrito mile charity run and then that night I had multiple people flirting with me.  Nothing better than a boost to the ego to spark your into the next week =)  Now I’m set to do a month diet/cleanse through the month of March, with a small break at the beginning of April for my birthday.

That being said, February ended on a high and here’s hoping that March brings out a productive and enjoyable Spring!  Oh and happy, technically unbirthday, to my friend Caitlin who is technically still 6 years old :-P

Just by looking at someone, we innately judge them.  Based on what they are wearing, if their hair is kempt or even how they walk or talk.

People who we may see regularly, we judge them based on the actions we see them doing.  Just from seeing them around, it is interesting to not only see the inferences we create, but then have them confirmed by others who make the exact same inferences.  Like you, they only know the person because they see them around.

This woman who works at my company takes the bus with me.  There’s another woman who routinely takes the same bus at us.  Both of us notice how she always rushes to be the first person on the bus and usually sits in priority seating, taking up 2 if not 3 seats at a time.  In fact, my friend and I saw her today along with a girl who is always on her cell phone.  We actually didn’t recognize her once because she didn’t have her cell phone to her ear.

I’m sure if you get to know someone personally then your viewpoint on them may change.  Getting to know someone on any level beyond just seeing them at some or various points across your day is bound to alter how you perceive them.  I just find it fascinating that the way I perceive people to be without even talking to them is the same way that others perceive them as well simply based off of their mannerisms, actions and the way they carry themselves.  I guess people are always watching.

It’s amazing how polarizing this can feel, pitching something you spent a very significant amount of time on that details something you are very passionate about.  You spend such a lengthy, detailed amount of time creating the perfect three paragraph query or the customized proposal for each agent, and it just starts to take a toll on you.

You're bound to get rejections, and I know this.  The only way you can respond is to keep promoting and finding new people to send queries and proposals to.  It's hard to bounce back sometimes.  It's hard to not let some agent turning my project down to not affect me personally, but it happens.

I have put a lot of time and effort into writing, editing and packaging this book.  I have sacrificed a lot.  I left a very stable career path to pursue this dominantly.  Sometimes I look back and wonder if I made the wrong choice, if that decision has put me in a bind and hindered my career growth permanently.  It sounds extreme I'm sure, but I have spent my entire life attempting to overcome odds and persevering whatever the outcome be from my determination.  Having to tap into residual, and more residual reserves is mentally and physically draining.  It makes you doubt choices you made.  Is anyone who has the power to help me get somewhere going to see the benefit that I and so many others around me see in what I have written and done.

I never give up.  This is just me being frustrated and analyzing why I feel frustrated.  It goes away with every one-off situation that arises where I have impacted someone positively.  I've just striven so hard since my aneurysm and have come up with such a large compendium that all I want is to make it into a sufficient career.

Be confident.  Believe in what you want to do and accept that it is going to take time.  Yes, I left a job to pursue this, but if I didn't leave I may still not yet have my driver's license.  I never would have had my roadtrip to Colorado, and plenty of other events that have happened in my life that have come because of leaving that job to pursue this will come to light when this career actually happens.  See, it will happen.

I'm in a slight funk because I have been pitching the same few chapters and forgetting about the abundance of additional substance in my book.  What I have written and done with my life is remarkable and will make a difference.  I believe that.  And besides, if the Jersey Shore girls can write their own books and be published, there is absolutely no reason why a Boston Marathon winner who lives with a permanent stroke effected body can't be published.

I don't think I can end this on a higher note, so I'm done and, yes, I am feeling better.  Have a great day everyone and I will keep you posted WHEN I hear something.  Everyone keeps asking me at the gym or wherever they see me, so they must believe in me.  I owe it to them and myself to have that amount of faith and keep it.  Yeah, Snooki ain't got nothin' on Greg "The Cannon".

People are more motivated by immediate consequences than by future possibilities.

This is a major problem.  To do things properly and to make them part of a balanced lifestyle instead of a scrambled necessary alternative, we need to better prepare ourselves by acknowledging warning signs instead of waiting until the actual event flashes right in our faces.  That mad rush scramble to get to some end goal, whether it is cleaning the house for visiting family or to lose 10 pounds in order to fit into a dress for some event or engagement can all be avoided by gradually incorporating 20 minutes of cleaning or walking into your daily routine DAILY…instead of making up for all the days you missed by going on a non-stop marathon a few days before D-Day.

It’s very hard to adjust to a new lifestyle that such a dominant majority innately neglect.  “I’m tired today.  Work was hard.  This can wait until tomorrow.  That doesn’t need to get done today…”  The trend goes on and on until all we are left with is an immediate consequence.  Our embracement of this trend also speaks very highly to how we visualize and go about achieving success.  For some, they are lucky to have their opportunities fall in their lap, but taking the time, seeing the steps and believing in how they can come together and lead to the next opportunity requires believing and working towards those future possibilities instead of waiting for that immediate consequence to fall into your lap.

That doesn’t always happen, but by integrating the changes necessary to account for those future possibilities, which we may not always see, you have created a much more balanced and structured lifestyle that is both enjoyable (because you are avoiding the immediate stresses that suddenly arise) and more efficiently productive.  It takes time and effort to begin building towards that type of lifestyle, but work with it enough and it becomes as natural as any way you have ever known.

Dieting is the same way.  After a week, things get to be easier.  After a month, it’s become habit.  It won’t happen overnight, but instead of putting of the adjustment—like we always do—maybe we can simply start working towards that habit by doing a little bit ideally more today than we have been doing.  Do a little bit of what we always tell ourselves we will do and we’ll feel better.  We’ll not only feel it immediately that day, but we will feel it exponentially so when we aren’t scrambling to get something done when the immediate consequence is at hand.  Do a little bit and it turns into a win-win all the way around.

Oh, the things we do for charity...

Story about 2009's event
In the world of competitive eating, contestants each have their own style. Some take huge, slow bites; some take small, quick ones. Some eat breakfast the morning of a competition (to stretch the stomach, naturally); some don't. But for Bethesda's Burrito Mile, one thing is clear: You gotta train.

The Burrito Mile, an annual event coordinated by Walter Johnson High School students, combines eating a burrito, then — you guessed it — running a mile. Last year, more than 300 participants crammed onto the track at the school for the event. The student-organized race raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Contestants can't just show up and expect to win, though. They need to have a plan.

"The running means nothing if you can't eat fast," said 17-year-old junior Sean O'Leary, the event's coordinator. "Anyone who eats [the burrito] in under two minutes is good; under one minute is just gross."

Ian Chow, a former Walter Johnson student now at Northwestern University, has set the record for the past two years, eating his burrito in just 37 seconds. Legend has it that Chow ate the entire pile of meat, beans, tortilla and salsa in five bites.

To try and top Chow—or at least get off to a good start—for days before the race, the competitors eat. And eat. And eat some more.

This year's event kicks off at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, at Tilden Middle School in North Bethesda. This week, O'Leary said he plans to eat "five or six" burritos to prepare for the event.

That amount of training, though, doesn't come close to Chow, according to Rafi Moersen, who founded the event in 2007 and is now a freshman at The George Washington University.

"He would sit and eat four burritos in one sitting," Moersen said. "That helped a lot because his stomach was expanded."

Most of the runners are on high school track teams across the county, so the mile is a piece of cake — or quesadilla. It's the eating that separates the hombres from the niños.

"I go with the chicken fajita burrito," said Paul Conant, a 17-year-old junior, training on a recent afternoon at a Bethesda burrito shop. "It's gotta taste good, and the chicken is less chewy than the steak."

And while the training seems no holds-barred, there are some rules.

Rule number one: You can't throw up. Once the burrito goes down, it better not come back up.

Number two: Well, technically "Don't throw up" is pretty much the only rule.

This year, O'Leary has created consent forms — "to quell the negative Nancies," he said — for all competitors under 18, and they must be signed by the student's parent. All proceeds go to support Walter Johnson's "Pennies for Patients" fundraiser, which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The Burrito Mile record is 6:15. You have three days to train. Go.

The third annual Burrito Mile kicks off at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, at Tilden Middle School in North Bethesda, 11211 Old Georgetown Road. Fees go to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The prices are $1 for bottled water, $10 for a T-shirt, $10 to enter the race (grants you one burrito) and $15 to compete in two races or the daunting two-burrito race. More information and consent forms for runners under 18 are available at www.burritomile.com.