Searching for Some Inspiration
Do you ever have those days in which you just feel you need a bit more inspiration than on other days? I had one of those days today! I prefer to be the one to offer up some inspiration to others but, there are many occasions that I must go searching for some of my own.
Its really ironic because as I was thinking I needed a dose of inspiration, Emma had turned on the T.V. and would you believe inspiration was staring me dead in the eye. The Ironman World Championship was showing. I don't watch much T.V. but, this really captured me today. I watched the well trained endurance athletes compete in this event and amongst them were also people that had never competed before. They told stories of several competitors. A woman that used to be very overweight, a woman that was diagnosed with cancer and endured treatments at the same time she was training. There was a man with no legs and a man in his eighties. While watching this, my mind was being filled with inspiration and the reminder that nothing is impossible.
In the back of my mind, I am always thinking about what I should challenge myself with next. After running two half marathons, I feel like I need to take on a bigger challenge. My most recent half marathon threw many different challenges at me, and I tried to tell myself that endurance events are too hard on my body. If you missed this post, you can catch up on it here. Well, that reasoning would mean I am telling myself that I can't do something before I even attempt it. If you have ever read even a single post on my blog, you would most definitely know that I am not, and will never be a quitter.
As I watched this event, I tried to visualize myself training and challenging myself to an endurance event with the magnitude such as this. As nature has it, that crazy little thing known as doubt, would keep sneaking in and telling me that my body could endure many more issues than an average participant because of the inconvenience of something known as diabetes. Darn it! If it weren't for that, I would be doubting nothing! My heart was racing with the excitement of the vision of myself pushing past my perceived physical, mental and emotional limits. I love the challenge of training for an event. I am not going to lie and tell you that every training day is great and feels great. Or that I don't have those days in which I would rather do anything besides head out for a specific number of miles. I will say, that even on the days that I am tired or not feeling motivated or my stomach is upset, once I complete whatever is on the training schedule, I never once regret that I did so. I love the sense of not only having my mind set on the goal but, the feeling of accomplishment of achieving the goal itself. The key is setting achievable or what may seem like slightly unachievable goals. I don't feel I am bettering myself in life if I don't constantly set goals for myself. Achieving goals simply drives me to set the bar higher and challenge myself to bigger and better things.
Honestly....who doesn't find satisfaction in achieving goals they have set for themselves? I truly believe, from my own experience, that goals help boost motivation and fuel perseverance. Each of which are key factors in life. Without motivation, nothing gets done and it makes so many things in life very difficult. You absolutely must want something bad enough to actually achieve it. Perseverance allows you to put the motivation into action and stick with it until you have gotten what you set your heart and soul to achieve. Is this making sense? Sometimes when I write, I can hardly keep up with my thoughts and get them written fast enough.
I guess my basic point is that if you have the motivation and the perseverance, fueling you to achieve your goals....anything is POSSIBLE! As the statement goes, the word "impossible", basically tells you, "I'm possible". I am not quite sure who came up with that phrase but, they were definitely a very smart thinker. So simple but, so very accurate.
I know that I may sound like someone that is always positive and never doubts myself....think again. I struggle every single day of my life with some form of self doubt. Some days, I feel like a failure in some aspect of my life. Other days, I have serious internal battles about my body or not doing something quite well enough. I have always expected so much from myself. I feel that if I don't, I am only selling myself short at living up to my full potential. I have repeated myself probably at least a hundred times over on this blog about the fact of trying to keep positive about things no matter what. Negative thoughts just suck you into a never ending black hole. That is exactly why I make a very conscious effort to always balance a negative thought with a positive. I reason with myself about why I may have been thinking that way and then push the negatives out with the garbage. I have no place in my life for negativity. I have been there, done that before. Both with myself, and people in my life. I have gotten to the point in which I need to eliminate that from my life the very best that I can. I have had people in my life that would do anything to bring me down with negativity. Sorry....that is not okay anymore and never will be. If I am with people that I care about, and they begin speaking negatively, I finally have gained the confidence to tell them that it isn't doing them any good to let that into their lives. I love to listen to people and provide understanding and compassion for whatever it may be that they are upset about or struggling with at the time. I can't tell you how thankful I am for the people in my life that do the same for me.
I seem to have gotten completely sidetracked as I revealed more of myself and that I am only human. I absolutely have days of self doubt, likely more than most people may, but, I do my darnedest to work at making those days become less and less. I am slowly and with much struggle, learning to accept and believe in myself and who I am .
Wow! What a long and deep post this resulted in as I begin to finally bring it to a close. I do want to post this video of the Ironman event for you to check out if you do so choose. Perhaps it will inspire you as well. This is not the one I watched today but, a small snippet of the event. It will give you a good enough idea of the challenge of this amazing endurance event.
Enjoy your evening!
As I watched this event, I tried to visualize myself training and challenging myself to an endurance event with the magnitude such as this. As nature has it, that crazy little thing known as doubt, would keep sneaking in and telling me that my body could endure many more issues than an average participant because of the inconvenience of something known as diabetes. Darn it! If it weren't for that, I would be doubting nothing! My heart was racing with the excitement of the vision of myself pushing past my perceived physical, mental and emotional limits. I love the challenge of training for an event. I am not going to lie and tell you that every training day is great and feels great. Or that I don't have those days in which I would rather do anything besides head out for a specific number of miles. I will say, that even on the days that I am tired or not feeling motivated or my stomach is upset, once I complete whatever is on the training schedule, I never once regret that I did so. I love the sense of not only having my mind set on the goal but, the feeling of accomplishment of achieving the goal itself. The key is setting achievable or what may seem like slightly unachievable goals. I don't feel I am bettering myself in life if I don't constantly set goals for myself. Achieving goals simply drives me to set the bar higher and challenge myself to bigger and better things.
Honestly....who doesn't find satisfaction in achieving goals they have set for themselves? I truly believe, from my own experience, that goals help boost motivation and fuel perseverance. Each of which are key factors in life. Without motivation, nothing gets done and it makes so many things in life very difficult. You absolutely must want something bad enough to actually achieve it. Perseverance allows you to put the motivation into action and stick with it until you have gotten what you set your heart and soul to achieve. Is this making sense? Sometimes when I write, I can hardly keep up with my thoughts and get them written fast enough.
I guess my basic point is that if you have the motivation and the perseverance, fueling you to achieve your goals....anything is POSSIBLE! As the statement goes, the word "impossible", basically tells you, "I'm possible". I am not quite sure who came up with that phrase but, they were definitely a very smart thinker. So simple but, so very accurate.
I know that I may sound like someone that is always positive and never doubts myself....think again. I struggle every single day of my life with some form of self doubt. Some days, I feel like a failure in some aspect of my life. Other days, I have serious internal battles about my body or not doing something quite well enough. I have always expected so much from myself. I feel that if I don't, I am only selling myself short at living up to my full potential. I have repeated myself probably at least a hundred times over on this blog about the fact of trying to keep positive about things no matter what. Negative thoughts just suck you into a never ending black hole. That is exactly why I make a very conscious effort to always balance a negative thought with a positive. I reason with myself about why I may have been thinking that way and then push the negatives out with the garbage. I have no place in my life for negativity. I have been there, done that before. Both with myself, and people in my life. I have gotten to the point in which I need to eliminate that from my life the very best that I can. I have had people in my life that would do anything to bring me down with negativity. Sorry....that is not okay anymore and never will be. If I am with people that I care about, and they begin speaking negatively, I finally have gained the confidence to tell them that it isn't doing them any good to let that into their lives. I love to listen to people and provide understanding and compassion for whatever it may be that they are upset about or struggling with at the time. I can't tell you how thankful I am for the people in my life that do the same for me.
I seem to have gotten completely sidetracked as I revealed more of myself and that I am only human. I absolutely have days of self doubt, likely more than most people may, but, I do my darnedest to work at making those days become less and less. I am slowly and with much struggle, learning to accept and believe in myself and who I am .
Wow! What a long and deep post this resulted in as I begin to finally bring it to a close. I do want to post this video of the Ironman event for you to check out if you do so choose. Perhaps it will inspire you as well. This is not the one I watched today but, a small snippet of the event. It will give you a good enough idea of the challenge of this amazing endurance event.
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