Resistance Yields to Persistance

Alright kids, let's get philosophical.

So I've been wrestling with a question for oh, say, about the last 3-4 years or so. It was sparked by running, and it is amazing to me how analogous running can be to life, yes? It began while pool running, imagine that. So the question is this: how do you know when to continue to persevere through a trying time and continue to overcome obstacles en route to a goal? How do you know when those obstacles and trials are an indication that a door is closed and that it is time to move on but you're too stubborn to do so? Are the most successful people in a given area also the ones who were the most stubborn asses when the going got tough?

I turned 26 yesterday and I feel like I got a crapload smarter all of a sudden, so after a lot of thought the answers have presented themselves.

One: Is/are your goal(s) realisitic? Now don't misinterpret me here and think that "realistic" is synonymous with "easy", if it was easy everyone would do it. I just mean if it is something that The Gut (I'm a huuuuuuuge believer in Gut feeling. The Gut is quiet, but is rarely wrong. Listen to The Gut.) says that you can do--maybe not within the next week, but something that over time, with a lot of sweat, sacrifice, and tears, and barring complete catastrophy--can be achieved, then YES it is realistic. YES you should persevere through whatever is thrown your way because you're not just striving towards dreams made of fluffy, sparkly, things and gum and unicorns and lollipops. You're not laboring under delusion. Oh and as an aside on that, never give a damn what anyone else thinks you can do, what do they know? Just saying. Had to interject that.

Two, and the most important I think: Do you love what you're doing? Running as a competitive sport can be kind of cruel, so to keep at it you REALLY better love it. I mean, you put in miles and miles and give up other "fun" things that you could be doing to strive toward a goal and there is no guarantee of success by any means. But are those miles and miles just drudgery? Are they just a necessary evil? Is your focus totally on the end result and there's no love of the process? If yes, then I guess to continue on would just be considered straight-up stubborness. I mean, take the situation where maybe the only way a person's ever earned any kind of status or validation is through a certain activity so they can't let it go regardless of the fact that they don't even enjoy it. We've all known the super-talented runners who seem to hate every step of every workout and only seem to "enjoy" bringing home the hardware. So in that case, maybe not worth "persevering" through tough times. But if it happens that the process is the reward, and the outcome is the icing on the cake, then by all means keep at it.

So I figure I am in the clear on both of those things so I can justify stubbornly keeping at it despite a slight lack of success (we've all been there, and if you haven't, you might be someday) the last couple of years. It might not always have been "fun," but by God I'm not done yet. Besides, when the fit hits the shan at the eleventh hour a few too many times in a row, it makes for a gnarly chip on the shoulder and makes it awfully hard to "burn out" because you know if you stopped you'd always wonder...

I guess if there were no tribulations, no trials, no shortcomings, no tears, no miserable failures, and no less-than-perfect days, we wouldn't know what FRIKKIN' AWESOME looked like. You'd cross the line having just earned your first USA jersey and rather than crying like a little 5 year old all teary and boogery and gross in front of the FloTrack camera, and being totally overcome with gratitude and satisfaction, you'd just wonder what's for dinner and if there's a mechanical bull at the post-race party. I think that Nate Jenkins said it best:

"I think it is important for people to hear that we all get down and want to pack it in. I wanted to quit many times, I just wanted to walk away. I wasn't nearly as good as I thought I should be. On top of that, other peoples success always seems so easy from the outside. It seems they never struggled and you should just walk away because you have. I'm no world-beater and I've not accomplished all my goals, but as someone who could have easily walked away a thousand times and no one would have ever thought anything of it, I can tell you even if I never run one second faster in anything, that it is HARD, we ALL have bad days, we ALL get frustrated and IF you just keep picking yourself up and dusting yourself off and getting back at it you will reap the rewards. Maybe not the exact ones you wanted but rewards all the same."