I am an early bird.

Yesterday morning I was up at 4:00 AM and started working. By around 10:00 AM, I was somehow feeling a bit drained. I decided to go run.
The days are warming up a bit, and I felt the heat. There are hills around my place, and while going up it became harder than what I was expecting.
Idea popped in my mind, “Stop running
Deven, take it easy”.

Another voice from inside surprised me, “Keep going. Remember dolphin from David’s talk last Sat?” I cracked up for some reason, felt so light and completed the run. I am training for a marathon in six months or so, and the rush of completing the run made my day.

You might ask, “So, what’s the scoop here? What has Dolphin to do with your run? Are you going to connect the dots?”

I know … here it is in a little story that I wrote below. Before I continue on, I would remiss without saying this –

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This story is basically me trying to exercise my story telling muscles using David’s example from last week’s Awakin call.

All proceeds from positive credit for this story go to him.

I hope it’s my droplet in the ocean that reaches out to David and adds in a bit in his drive and zeal to do magical things that he does.



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A dolphin arrived at San Diego Sea World, excited to show his magic to the world. Dolphin was feeling extremely good and confident.

Trainers started work with dolphin. For first few weeks, they would try to give signals to the dolphin to start jumping. Dolphin thought it was piece of cake. He was feeling so good… “I am making progress. Before you know it, world will see my magic.”

John, one of employees, would stop by once a week or so, and he thought… “Boy, this is a project. It’s been weeks and the thing isn’t even breaking the surface. While I don’t know much about training a dolphin, this looks like not an easy dolphin to train.”

Dolphin is happy… Trainers are trying diligently… Routine of training continued for a month or so.

John stopped by again. This time, he saw dolphin jumping a foot in the air. He cried out, “Wow, look at that!” Everyone there gave him “what’s the big deal” look. It was business as usual for them.

Next time, when John popped in a couple of months later, he saw the dolphin jumping 3 feet above the water. He jumped up and down in the air with excitement, and others started thinking, “John is a fun, easily excitable guy. How energizing to have him around, he is so light hearted.”

John had to travel quite a bit, and he didn’t get to see the dolphin or his friends for a long time. He popped in the dolphin show one day, and saw the dolphin jump 15 feet in the air. He jumped much higher than anyone else in the audience.

He felt so happy for the progress dolphin made. He mentioned to a stranger sitting right next to him, “It is amazing what they do here.”

The other person said, “I know…” and then went back to her pop corn while watching the show.


I think David has a priceless moral from the story – small, consistent steps with discipline go long way in achieving significant things. While it may not feel as much in daily increments, it adds up well over time. When you take a longer term perspective over time, you see the difference. It’s all about discipline, diligence, and right attitude as well as perspective.

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“Okay!!?? So, what’s the connection with your run?”

What resonated so much at the moment when I was running uphill, was that dolphin always went home feeling good and confident. It didn’t matter whether he was barely breaking the surface or jumping 15 feet. Maybe, I do the same. Feel good, try, enjoy it, continue plugging – magic will happen. And yesterday, happen it did … I got energy and push from inside to complete the run.

I AM THE DOLPHIN.

“So, Mr Dolphin, may we ask what would be your magic?”

Well to make the long story short, when I ran the marathon last time, I completed it. Snails passing by me were like John when he saw the dolphin initially - they thought I was too slow.

So, maybe I can work on my speed a bit.

I run by myself. I have never worked with a trainer. If I go get one, I have one thing on his/her job description. That is, to hear this from me… “Dude… easy on your tough love…I am your dolphin here.”

And hopefully just like John, one day it will be snails’ turn to marvel, “Wow, Deven runs faster than us now.”


Now, wouldn’t that be an accomplishment?