A Time To Walk!

It’s a question of spreading the available energy, aerobic and anaerobic, evenly over four minutes. If you run one part too fast you pay a price. If you run another part more slowly your overall time is slower. – Roger Bannister, English athlete and the first to run the mile in under four minutes.

There are certainly times that we must go all out with very clear goals in mind in order to feel productive and raise the level of bodily endorphins to incite the visceral feeling of happiness, but the quote from Roger Bannister tells the whole story…that if you go too hard during that journey you pay a price, often times very significant. We have all had that time in our lives when we pushed so hard that something seemed to snap. It might have resulted in a divorce, missing valuable time with our kids, talking ourselves out of a great job or even worse, doing some physical and psychological damage to ourselves. As a highly driven person, I know this challenge all too well. There have been several times in my life that I thought I was supposed to conquer the world in a half an hour only to leave myself in a highly frustrated and exhausted place. It’s funny how life just delivers the same message until we finally get it and fall into a more reasonable pace!

Maybe it’s just a tragic comedy that we are destined to be like ants, those of us who work at a frenetic pace eventually fizzle out well before our time and those that are just plain old lazy get walked on by the whole colony! So where does that put you? Like I have said many times, I believe happiness comes from focusing on your strengths and leveraging them to do what you do best. Give it all you have and be aggressive….BUT…that does not mean at breakneck speed all the time. The other day I decided to take a walk…not my typical run…along the beach and what I found was actually amazing. Even though I had hustled this same path for many years, I had never noticed this quaint little house tucked away amongst the pines, and even better, the sun was setting on the ocean and gave me a whole different perspective than I had when sweating and toiling through a more rigorous workout. Then the same thing happened two more times; first I noticed a guy on a bike riding through my neighborhood and thought what a different place he must see than I do as I whip out of my driveway focused on getting where I need to be next, second I was forced to a standstill on a major highway that I have traveled for years only to notice how beautiful the woods are.

So I have to make my point before you think I’ve become inspired to write some poetry about nature! It’s okay to slow down and pace yourself…life is a marathon! Better yet when you do, it offers the chance to make little distinctions about anything! You might just notice how hard your wife works with your kids, how forgiving your parents have always been with your shortcomings, how patient your boss has been with your learning curve or how loyal your best employees have been! How about the opportunity to review your work and look for the weak spots that might bring the whole castle down? Life is loaded with amazing details that are impossible to see if we are always moving too fast. Yes there is a great benefit to pushing yourself and being productive, but don’t forget that the tortoise actually won the race at the end of the story! So every once in a while take a walk in the tall grass without your shoes…it might just make you a better runner!

Tags: Motivation, Self Improvement