“Those who seek a better life must first become a better person.” – Jim Rohn
Sounds simple enough, right? The hardest part is deciding where to start. In the simplest form there are a few obvious choices, the physical self, the mental self, the spiritual self. To me, physical self seems like as good a place as any to begin. I’ve played my share of sports in school. I was always a fairly healthy fella. It should be a piece of cake, right? Have you ever heard the saying, “Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth”?
Even though it was said by Iron Mike Tyson, it doesn’t only have meaning in the ring. My first excursion into the wonderful world of running did just that. It hit me in the mouth. I had my first exposure to what time does to the body. I took for granted my past, and didn’t respect how the passage of time can make things you previously did without much thought so difficult. For years, we ran as an afterthought. It was normally reserved for punishment. The whole “you will stop running when I get tired” sort of thing.
With that said, I completed two miles. No I wasn’t able to run the whole way. Hell, I couldn’t even make it most of the way. But I ran. Now I come to the second stage in my endeavor, continuation and motivation. I will admit, there were a couple of times out there under that southern sun I asked myself what was I thinking. I’m to old for this shit, as Danny Glover would say. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew from the start. But the farther I went the better I felt. I caught myself saying, “just around the next corner then I’ll turn around”. I kept going.
As I sit here, I’m trying to talk myself into going back out there. Talk myself into, may not be the best choice of words. I want to go, and most likely will. I just sit here and realize there is no accountability when doing something for yourself. There is nobody to answer to but yourself. Nobody to ask if you did or didn’t. Nobody to disappoint or make proud. Nobody to hold you accountable. It is totally on you. You have to ask if you are going to hold yourself accountable. What do you consider wins and losses in this situation. Can you make excuses as to why it didn’t happen? If so what excuses do you consider acceptable? I don’t think I would want to put all that on myself. I believe to save all that extra curricular thinking, I will just go run.
