How to step on a snake

Every Saturday I wake up around 5:30 in the morning. I’ve done this darn near every weekend since February.

I’m training for a 50K trail run in November, so Saturdays are my long run. When I first started I was getting up early so I could still have the day with my family.

But now I get up to beat the Louisiana Summer heat.

We were in Maine for a couple of weeks in July, so the August heat has felt even more brutal.

Anyway. The heat is not the point.

Snakes are the point.

Copperheads.

I don’t see these guys all that often, but the heat seems to bring them out a bit more than usual.

Most snakes disappear long before I get to them on the trail. Presumably…

But these fellas are different. Copperheads freeze and stay put when they hear something. They are camouflaged if still.

So people step on them or near them and get bitten.

The trick is to stay alert. You’ll see the snake… and the oncoming mountain bikers.

But how often do we have our head down? Maybe we’re looking at phones. Maybe we are lost in thought about a work issue. Maybe it’s just good, old-fashioned daydreaming.

I’m guilty. You’re guilty. We’re all guilty.

But if you have your head in the clouds, you just might step on a snake. Or miss something wonderful.

Same thing bites folks in my line of work. It doesn’t chase you. It just sits still, right where you left it… a plan document nobody read, an election that defaulted years ago and never got looked at again.

You don’t step on that one in the moment. You step on it the year you retire.

Anyway. Heads up out there.

What have you been walking past?

If the honest answer is your own plan documents, that is the thing I do. It is called the Deferred Comp and Retirement Review. I read the actual paperwork and hand you back a written answer in two weeks. What vests when. Where the money actually sits. What happens if you leave early.

It is $1,250, paid up front. If you read it and do not think it was worth it, tell me and I will refund it.

Just hit reply and I will send you the details.

All the very best,

John Montgomery