I’ve had this little voice nagging me, “The blog! You need to write! Boston! You need to run! You need to run faster! 50 miler. You need to run more. You need to run farther!”
Well, come to think of it, it was yelling at me like my well-meaning, perfection-demanding, Korean mother. And just like I did when I was a pain in the ass teenager, I shut down that voice with, “Eff you, I don’t wanna!” Talk about the bratty self-sabotage!
Confession time: It’s been 3 days since my last run. I know this doesn’t seem like a huge big deal for most people…but for an overachieving A-sian, the guilt of skipping two runs can be debilitating. I could just FEEL my fitness slipping. I could just hear my coach’s disappointed and frustrated voice! And as a perfectionist, when you mess something up, you just want to crumple it up, throw it away and just get a fresh piece of paper out and start over.
You simply can’t face the fact that something you produced just wasn’t up to par or plan. The problem is, life just doesn’t work out so well if you keep giving up and moving on to the next new shiny object because you found some small little imperfection or “mistake”. They say success comes to those who persist and I truly believe this to be true…now. 3 husbands later! I swear, I’ve learned my lesson! LOL.
Good news, I broke the 3 day slump today and went out tonight for a (close to) MP 6 miler after taping up my temperamental right calf with some good ole KTtape. And my Garmin reported a new VO2 max and shaved off 5 minutes off my predicted marathon time! WOOHOO!
Of course, it had to be a seemingly mundane, repetitive activity like distance running that would teach me this valuable life lesson of persistence. And here I thought that the secret keys to success existed in some fancy, complex world of which I was not deserving! (IKR?!)
The secret to persistence? Stop thinking, analyzing, projecting, even dreaming, and start doing. Just move your body. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Shut down the neurotic conversation you have with yourself. Who truly cares what anyone thinks? Everyone’s too busy being crazy with themselves that they’re not really paying attention to you anyway. #truestory
It’s not about how good you are at something, or how many races you win. It’s about doing things with HEART…with passion, belief, and unerring determination. That’s what life is about…always bringing your “A game” without beating yourself up if you fall a little short that day and get a B+. So just get on out there and do what you love with whom you love. Everything else will work itself out somehow.
Project Shine 