The difference between a good landing and a great one. Or if you're going to take that exam, you should put some clothes on.

MABA time is here again! It's time to sign up for the annual burpee challenge

MABA 2023 is just weeks away. Sign up here: https://f3maba.com/signup/2023

MABA — Make America Burpee Again — is an annual challenge in which participants attempt to complete 3,100 burpees in the month of January. You can do 100 a day every day, or bank them and take days off.

Last year 500-some men and women from around the world completed 1.5 million burpees. We did them to build resilience and discovered they gave us so much more than that. They gave us a way to shed light on, and fight, the epidemic of loneliness.

The theme is Fall Down. Get back up. Together. We all fall down. We all get back up. We must not do either one alone.

MABA is not about the burpees. They are the means, not the end. The end is the relationships that result.

For more on MABA, watch this.

Or read my essay in the second edition of Freed to Lead. See also my stories on MABA for SUCCESS.com here, here and here.

Please share this far and wide.

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We’ve all had the dream. You show up for a class to take the final exam even though you never attended a single lecture, never signed up for the class, and don’t know anything about the topic.

Lately I’ve had a variation of that: I’m flying a plane even though I have no idea how to do it. Sometimes I’m taking off, sometimes I’m landing, but usually I’m just trying to keep the wings level.

I had that dream again a few nights ago. This time, I sat behind the controls of a super fancy private jet. Not only could I not fly it straight, I couldn’t even think about landing it.

Ten years ago, I would have said this dream represents my fear of flying, especially in small planes. But I’ve pretty much conquered that, so I have three interpretations:

A.   I have no qualifications to be leading MABA just as I have no right qualifications to be flying.

B.    This dream fell on this night because I’m working on a story that I’m really excited about. I have a ton of great information (read: it’s a super fancy private jet) but I’m not sure what to do with it yet (read: not only could I not fly it straight, I couldn’t even think about landing it.**) In the two days since, I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out the story. At the very least, I can fly it straight now. By the end of today, I hope to have landing figured out.***

C.    I should pitch a story about taking flying lessons.

I’m going with B, but I’m thinking about pursuing C because why the heck not?

**The pilot in the photo above took me on a tour high above Big Bend National Park in Texas. He jokingly bragged that he had the same number of takeoffs as landings. That’s my second favorite landing joke.

***A pilot friend of mine says a good landing is one you walk away from, and a great one is one you can use the plane again. That’s my favorite landing joke.

I’ve had another variation of this dream in which I am on stage in front of a massive audience, and I’m supposed to play bass, except I have no idea how. What weird variations of this dream have you had?