Create the Future You Want: Lessons from Running, AI, and Education

I learned a little lesson from running when I was in pain: try not to focus on the pain but on something that brings you joy.

This doesn’t mean the pain doesn’t exist, nor should you ever ignore an injury.

But your mental capacity to focus on what you want or what brings you happiness will pull you forward, while pain can easily push you down.

This is a tip I picked up from runner Ryan Hall’s book (he held the US half marathon record from 2007-2025), “Run the Mile You’re In.” And it made a difference for me.

When running the Disney World Full Marathon in January of 2024, only a few weeks before the race, after months of strenuous training, my soul dog Odom was diagnosed with cancer. He was terribly sick, and I had thought about dropping out of the race altogether, but decided to give it my best. My body was ready, but my heart wasn’t into it. 

I woke up early that morning and got myself ready for the race. As I left, my dog Odom came to the door, wagging his tail, hoping that we would go for a walk. He had not done that any days prior, but on this day, he did. It was his way of saying, “If I can do this, you can too.”

Later in the race, when I started hitting the wall, I thought about Odom at the door, wagging his tail, giving everything he had to see me out the door. I then started thinking about the excitement of seeing my kids at the finish line, seeing their dad complete something he had trained diligently for over the past several months. Those thoughts not only got me through the pain, they pulled me to the finish line.

This all came to me as I was reading the book, “Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future,” and read the following quote:

This is going to date me (seems like most things do these days), but I thought back to when schools were making “Acceptable Use Policies” for technology and social media. They basically worked like this: if you do this dumb thing with technology, you get this consequence. It was set up for failure because that was all that it focused on. What not to do with technology.

That shifted to a “Responsible Use of Technology” form that was more focused on not only the expectations but also the possibilities of what was trying to be achieved. When we did this, it was co-created with our school community, and it was meant to inspire us to do something more because of the technology, not say, “Hey, this technology is here, and here are all the bad things you can do with it!” If you constantly focus on what not to do, that is what is likely to happen.

For example, don’t think of an elephant.

I am guessing that when you read that, you didn’t hear barking in your mind (maybe in your house, but that would be a coincidence!).

Recently, I had Superintendent Paul Romanelli on the podcast from West Islip, and he shared this video for their district’s AI Vision statement, which shares boundaries but also a vision for the future they are trying to create.

My favorite part of the video is at the end, when students say, “At West Islip, we are not just preparing for the future, we are creating it.”

(Check out their page for not only the video, but also a written form of their vision statement.)

So many schools are learning from the past by focusing less on what could go wrong and more on creating the future they want. This doesn’t mean there are no issues in education or things that need to be addressed, but you are more likely to create and better equip the leaders of tomorrow in education if you empower learners to lead in your community today.

That starts by creating the future you want.