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Marathon vs. Sprint

hill

Right before Christmas I found my running shoes on sale for $42.00. Normally, my shoes sale for $95.00.  Needless, to say I jumped on that price and bought myself a brand new pair of shoes. 


By the time I had found this killer deal, my shoes were well past the need to be replaced. 

Don't believe me?  Take a look.


As you can see I clearly was in need of new pair of shoes.

While I thought these shoes were, "Oh so comfy," they were indeed ready to be replaced.

Have you heard the saying, "Life is not a sprint but a marathon?"

Replacing my shoes brought this saying to mind. Wearing my new shoes and having my knees, ankles, arches and feet say, "Geese, it is about time!" Brought to mind the mentality of living a sprint life and living a marathon life.

I think I have lived my life, up to this point, with a, "Life is a sprint," mentality.

I want it done now.

Right now.

Yesterday, would have been better.

I have figured out that the first step I need to take is to slow down. Life isn't merely about enjoying the moment, it is about understanding and learning from the moment. 

Everyday life comes at us. It never slows down, it never speeds up, we have no control over time. Every day we have 24 hours that tick, tick, tick, tick, away.

We do, however,  have a choice in how we live those 24 hours.

We can spend our days wishing them away. We can spend the day wishing a situation away. We can spend the whole day pretending that something that has to be done today can wait until tomorrow.

That is what I did with my shoes.  Everyday I would slip my old shoes on and pretend they didn't need to be replaced.  When my arches began to ache I pretended that it wasn't the shoes fault.  When my toe began to peek out of the shoe and my ankles rubbed the material away from the back of the shoes, I turned away and pretended that new shoes were not necessary.

However, when the next 24 hours dawned, and I put those shoes on again, those things were all still there, pretending didn't accomplish a single thing, and avoiding a situation only led to having to deal with it yet another day.

Eventually, even my workouts began to suffer as I slowed down because of sore feet and knees. I had all kinds of excuses for not replacing the shoes, obviously, the first being the price. However, it didn't change the necessity for the shoes given my life style. 

In the marathon of life there is always going to be hills.  In this incident, my hill was the price of the shoes.  We are always going to have to face decisions that seem like a straight up hill. Those hills look impossible, those hills look like torture, those hills look like a no win. However, once we make the choice to run up the hill, face the challenge, endure to the top of the hill, we are often rewarded.  With a hill that goes straight down. WOO HOO!

My challenge to you and myself.  Face the hill, challenge the hill, endure the hill. Know without a doubt there will be more hills. Know that turning your back to the hill will not achieve a gosh darn thing. 

Finally, new shoes,"Are oh so much prettier than old ones." 


What hills are you going to climb today?

Comments

Heather Bowles said…
I am sitting hear with my arms mentally folded as saying none, I am not climbing any hills today or this week. I am resisting, I refuse to climb a hill this week. Maybe another day not today though.
Brock said…
Uh: do you want to write my research papers for me!?

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