Why I Decided to Become a Morning Runner — Again

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  Why I Decided to Become a Morning Runner — Again After two years of injuries and excuses, the answer was embarrassingly simple. I just had to wake up earlier. I. The Hunger to Run For the past two years, the pattern was always the same. Train a little, race, get injured, spend months unable to run. Recover just enough, race again, get hurt again. Despite years of running, I was going nowhere. This year, I changed one thing: I stopped chasing times and focused on staying healthy. The results? A full marathon finish. A 100km ultra finish. Both without injury. After every previous race, I'd been limping for weeks or unable to run for months. This time, I could lace up again within days. I didn't realize how extraordinary that was until I experienced it. That difference — between pushing too hard and coming home in one piece — deserved a closer look. Pushing too hard → Injury Finishing healthy → C...

[Part 12] What Can I Live On in the Age of AI?


[Part 12] What Can I Live On in the Age of AI?
A Working Dad's Survival Story in the Age of AI · Series #12 · Taking Stock of What I Actually Have
On my way home, I ran into a delivery driver
waiting at the elevator.

Years ago, it was always young guys doing that job.
But lately, I keep seeing men around my age.
···

"Is he working two jobs?"
"When business is slow,
would I be better off doing delivery runs
than just sitting at my desk feeling miserable?"

I pushed those thoughts aside and opened the front door.
I didn't want my wife to pick up on my mood,
so I forced some brightness into my voice.

"I'm home."
I. The Question Everyone Is Asking

How much longer can I keep doing what I'm doing?

This isn't just a question for the self-employed.
Salaried workers, freelancers —
with AI now added to the mix,
we're all standing in front of the same wall.

"Jobs will disappear. You need to accept that."

And then — nothing.
No one tells you what comes next.

The slightly more helpful experts say:

"Go two-track.
Keep doing your current job,
and start learning AI at the same time."

But what exactly changes when you start using AI?

II. Is AI the Answer?
"No one learns to ride a bike
from a verbal explanation alone.
You have to get on and feel it.
AI is the same."

I've been using AI for about two or three months now.
It genuinely helps.
It saves time.
It catches things I miss.

But if I'm being honest,
the place I use AI the most
is the very job that's running out of time.

Getting better at AI doesn't answer
the real question:
what am I going to live on next?

I don't know.
But I can't give up.
III. So What Are My Assets?

I decided to reframe the question.

Forget money for a moment.
What do I have inside me
that AI cannot replicate?

I started writing it down.
1. Twenty Years of Real, Hard-Won Expertise
Twenty years in the inkjet industry — one deep well.
Right now, it's still my main source of income.
But it's a declining market.
I don't know how much longer it will hold.

What stays with me, though, is this:
when a machine breaks down,
I can hear where the problem is
before I even open it up.
Twenty years of instinct doesn't disappear overnight.
2. The Resilience of Two Decades in the Workplace
I've been through more situations than I can count.
Hurt by people. Saved by people.

Everything I've absorbed —
in my body, in my gut —
is still in there somewhere.
AI doesn't have that.
3. A Stubborn, Unglamorous Work Ethic
Perfect attendance through twelve years of school.
For our generation, missing a day was the exception.
Most people in their 40s and 50s carry this —
a quiet, stubborn consistency
that just keeps showing up.
4. A Body That Still Works
There's an old joke: "All you've got is your health — take care of it."
In my 30s, it felt like a joke.
In my 50s, it doesn't anymore.

The ability to keep working —
to physically show up every day —
is the most honest engine I have.
5. My Base Camp — Family
These days, I think of myself less as an individual
and more as someone defined by his family.

I used to think of them as my responsibility —
people I had to provide for.
But they're not a burden.
They're the reason I keep going.
My anchor. My why.

I worry because of them.
I get back up because of them.
IV. After Writing It All Down

Something loosened in my chest.

I thought I had nothing.
Turns out I have quite a lot.

Asset In One Line
20 years of expertise The instinct that no manual can teach
Resilience Everything absorbed through living it
Work ethic The quiet consistency that keeps showing up
Physical health The engine that makes everything else possible
Family My anchor and the reason I keep going
It would be easier with financial assets.
I won't pretend otherwise.

But the intangible assets I carry
are not small.

The problem is that I never thought to call them assets
until now.
To Close

I refuse to just drift.

I've started taking stock of what I have.
And I'm going to spend some time figuring out
what kind of path I can build with it —
one small step at a time.

···
The question I'm taking into the next post:
I have five assets.

What can I actually do with them?

Let's figure that out together
in Series #13.

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