This morning I ran for an hour. Six miles. Sluggish again. I felt a tiny bit stronger today, but my pace was slower. More hills though. I ate a few coconut date rolls before I headed out, but I might not have slept enough (five and a half hours). It was also very windy. Maybe that was my problem. The wind. I’ll say it was the wind.
I know there are going to be days – weeks, even – when I just don’t have it in me the way I know I can. It’s easy to get discouraged. I know I sometimes do. I did this morning.
I think they key is to just keep going. Keep doing the thing. Will the thing be hard sometimes? Yes. Do it anyway. It’s like gaining weight when you’re trying to lose. I hear it all the time: people who face setbacks with weight loss give up on eating better because they figure “What’s the point?” But those little setbacks are normal and okay and temporary. They’re the exception, not the rule.
No matter the setback you’re facing, I like to think of that voice telling you to quit as a school bully. If you could confront a school bully today, what would you say to him or her? Would you meekly give in to whatever dumb thing the bully wanted you to give them (i.e. lunch money – so cliché, bullies), or would you tell the bully to – excuse my language – go straight to h*ck?
I don’t know about you but I’d like to think I’d tell a bully off.
If you would do the same, then tell that voice urging you to quit the same thing you’d tell a bully. Whether it’s “Leave me alone” or “Go bother someone else, idiot” or “You’re just acting out because your parents didn’t give you the love you needed; not because you didn’t deserve it, but because they simply didn’t know how.”
Treat that voice like a bully. Tell it to go away. And keep doing the work.
This is a house I ran by this morning. I don’t know who the owners are but I love them.
These statues actually look like they’re not taking any shit. Fitting.
My Body Is A Machine 