You know me... always drawing some lesson from my life experiences! ;o Here is one that might be worth sharing. I probably should have posted it on May 7th, the day I wrote it. I think I'll post it here today so you can find it, and perhaps move it later to put it in chronological order. LOL! :) I hope you have a happy day!
Corine :D
May 7, 2011
Today was amazing! I made a major mental breakthrough. A valuable lesson was learned. I'll tell you what it was, but first you will have to hang in there for a little background info...
My mental breakthrough started with a phone call first thing in the morning. My friend Valerie called and told me that the half marathon we have been training for - isn't in 3 weeks... it's in ONE; I will be running a half marathon on Saturday the 14th of May!
I was a little concerned for several reasons. One, I have a knee which has been inflamed quite a bit, especially after running. I'm entirely not sure of the cause, but am trying to take care of my body... all of it... including this knee. Two, I just started training in March; last week was the first week in which I worked out 6 days (all but Sunday) so I haven't exactly trained adequately for this! Three, there have been a couple weeks in which I didn't even get to go on a long run, so my longest run had only been 9 miles long. And Four... generally, I only increase my running mileage by about one mile per week, and one week before the event, the farthest I had run was only 9 miles. All of this added up to to wondering if I could work my way up to running over 13 miles, only 8 days from today.
Knowing that today would be our last day to do a long run before the race, we decided to aim for 11 miles today. I didn't know if I could do it; I tried NOT to imagine my knee aching in pain with several miles left to go... I did not KNOW, I only HOPED that my knee would last and let me finish our run as planned. And I ran. When my knee ached, I talked to it, telling it to relax and that I would take care of it after the run. :) And I stopped momentarily to stretch it when needed.
The cool thing, was that we did it! :D We ran 11.10 miles! And my knee did far better than I anticipated and even hoped for. Now that I have gotten this far, I finally have complete faith that I can run the race a week from tomorrow. If I could run two miles farther than my last run today. Then I can definitely run two miles further than my last run, a week from tomorrow. :) Once I accomplish the 13 mile run, faith will no longer be necessary; I will know.
I have thought about todays' run and of how lessons learned relate to other aspects of my life. I have thought about how surprised I was to discover that despite my personal discomforts and imperfections - I CAN do it, and do it well... . Every week or so when I headed out the door with the plan to run at least one mile farther than I ever had before, I didn't KNOW if I could... I only hoped. But I did it. :) Each time I set out to run, I discovered that I can.
***I don't think it is a coincidence that my knee has given me such discomfort and pain. I think the Lord wanted me to go through this for my learning and growth. And in thinking about the pattern I have gone through each week of hoping, trying, and then finally knowing once succeeding...
****I realized quite clearly that much of my life has been like this. I always want to be totally and completely prepared FOR EVERYTHING; and I want to KNOW I am prepared... I want to KNOW that I can do something before attempting to do it; I suppose I may have been afraid of failing and not realized it.
But God does NOT want me to KNOW until after I put forth the effort; He wants me to learn to live by faith.
I am not perfect. No matter how much I try, I seldom feel completely prepared. And, I won't always KNOW that I can succeed at something, until AFTER I accomplish it.
The cool thing, is realizing that I can still succeed - even when it seems doubtful.
God did not put us here on Earth to fail.
In life, there don't have to be any losers. In life, winning does not depend upon beating the other guy. Winning depends upon having goals, staying focused on them so the obstacles don't trip you, and being persistent (of course, having a partner who can't fail... like the Lord is always helpful... :)
Winners stay focused on their goals... they don't let setbacks or obstacles get in the way.
Despite my many imperfections, struggles and shortcomings... I just know that as long as I continue to run the race of life, I will win with the things that matter!
One step at a time, one choice to press on after another ... I will eventually become the person I was created to be... while appreciating who I am today - right now. :) And I will conquer (win :) the challenges of life; because even when something seems impossible, I keep trying. :)
Corine :D
June 12, 2011
It just amazes me that something which I once thought would be SO DIFFICULT/ULTRA CHALLENGING... is increasingly becoming SO - NOT HARD. I have a hunch, I will one day find myself calling it EASY. :) ~ Very cool! :D
Corine :D
May 7, 2011
Today was amazing! I made a major mental breakthrough. A valuable lesson was learned. I'll tell you what it was, but first you will have to hang in there for a little background info...
My mental breakthrough started with a phone call first thing in the morning. My friend Valerie called and told me that the half marathon we have been training for - isn't in 3 weeks... it's in ONE; I will be running a half marathon on Saturday the 14th of May!
I was a little concerned for several reasons. One, I have a knee which has been inflamed quite a bit, especially after running. I'm entirely not sure of the cause, but am trying to take care of my body... all of it... including this knee. Two, I just started training in March; last week was the first week in which I worked out 6 days (all but Sunday) so I haven't exactly trained adequately for this! Three, there have been a couple weeks in which I didn't even get to go on a long run, so my longest run had only been 9 miles long. And Four... generally, I only increase my running mileage by about one mile per week, and one week before the event, the farthest I had run was only 9 miles. All of this added up to to wondering if I could work my way up to running over 13 miles, only 8 days from today.
Knowing that today would be our last day to do a long run before the race, we decided to aim for 11 miles today. I didn't know if I could do it; I tried NOT to imagine my knee aching in pain with several miles left to go... I did not KNOW, I only HOPED that my knee would last and let me finish our run as planned. And I ran. When my knee ached, I talked to it, telling it to relax and that I would take care of it after the run. :) And I stopped momentarily to stretch it when needed.
The cool thing, was that we did it! :D We ran 11.10 miles! And my knee did far better than I anticipated and even hoped for. Now that I have gotten this far, I finally have complete faith that I can run the race a week from tomorrow. If I could run two miles farther than my last run today. Then I can definitely run two miles further than my last run, a week from tomorrow. :) Once I accomplish the 13 mile run, faith will no longer be necessary; I will know.
I have thought about todays' run and of how lessons learned relate to other aspects of my life. I have thought about how surprised I was to discover that despite my personal discomforts and imperfections - I CAN do it, and do it well... . Every week or so when I headed out the door with the plan to run at least one mile farther than I ever had before, I didn't KNOW if I could... I only hoped. But I did it. :) Each time I set out to run, I discovered that I can.
***I don't think it is a coincidence that my knee has given me such discomfort and pain. I think the Lord wanted me to go through this for my learning and growth. And in thinking about the pattern I have gone through each week of hoping, trying, and then finally knowing once succeeding...
****I realized quite clearly that much of my life has been like this. I always want to be totally and completely prepared FOR EVERYTHING; and I want to KNOW I am prepared... I want to KNOW that I can do something before attempting to do it; I suppose I may have been afraid of failing and not realized it.
But God does NOT want me to KNOW until after I put forth the effort; He wants me to learn to live by faith.
I am not perfect. No matter how much I try, I seldom feel completely prepared. And, I won't always KNOW that I can succeed at something, until AFTER I accomplish it.
The cool thing, is realizing that I can still succeed - even when it seems doubtful.
God did not put us here on Earth to fail.
"There are no failures, just people who quit before they succeed."
Cameron Taylor
In life, there don't have to be any losers. In life, winning does not depend upon beating the other guy. Winning depends upon having goals, staying focused on them so the obstacles don't trip you, and being persistent (of course, having a partner who can't fail... like the Lord is always helpful... :)
Winners stay focused on their goals... they don't let setbacks or obstacles get in the way.
Despite my many imperfections, struggles and shortcomings... I just know that as long as I continue to run the race of life, I will win with the things that matter!
One step at a time, one choice to press on after another ... I will eventually become the person I was created to be... while appreciating who I am today - right now. :) And I will conquer (win :) the challenges of life; because even when something seems impossible, I keep trying. :)
Corine :D
June 12, 2011
It just amazes me that something which I once thought would be SO DIFFICULT/ULTRA CHALLENGING... is increasingly becoming SO - NOT HARD. I have a hunch, I will one day find myself calling it EASY. :) ~ Very cool! :D
This is so perfect for me this morning -- I've gotten so discouraged lately about what I'm not doing. Yesterday, during the Sacrament, I thought about Elder Bednar's talk about prayer several years ago -- where he talked about using prayer in the morning and evening to go over our goals/weaknesses with the Lord?
ReplyDeleteSo your post today is just another part of that picture I think ... I need to reread it again tonight.
Thx, my friend!
That is soo great that you made it. What a change from thinking you had weeks to prepare to only one!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great, inspiring post and congrats! I was just re-reading the conference edition of the Ensign yesterday and the thing that jumped out at me (that I'll be sharing on my blog too) was exactly what you said. You want to know you can do something before you attempt it and that's not what we need to do. Glad I'm not the only one who does that. :)But I'm not with you on the running thing. I do not run at all (asthma) and am totally proud of you!
ReplyDelete