#1 - Don't base your progress on how you feel on any one day. Some days I've felt strong and the very next day, I've felt like I was starting over. It's been important for me to keep a long view of my progress. That's why a training log is so valuable. I may feel really weak one day, but if I look back, I can see that I'm still improving.
The same is true in life. Personal growth is a slow process. Even though I haven't achieved what I want to, in looking back I can see how far I've come toward my goals. Nothing worth while happens over night. Even on my weak days, I know that I'm still working toward my goal. I'll get there if I just don't give up.
#2 - Accountability is a great motivator. When I train on my own, it's all too easy to blow off a run. That hasn't been the case with this go round. Just knowing that I will have to report for all the world to see (not that many are looking) has helped me get out of bed more days than I'd like to count. Out of six weeks of training so far, I've only missed one workout. I never would have believed it. I guess I've finally figured out how to make my pride work in my favor.
We were made to live in community. Peer pressure has been made out to be a bad thing. But when we encourage each other to do things that improve our life, peer pressure can be great. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." Mutual accountability can spur us on to reach goals we couldn't do alone.
#3 - You really can eat an elephant one bite at a time. It's been a few years since I ran 13.1 miles. The most I've done is about 5 miles, so a half marathon race seemed like a lot of work. But the payoff for running that distance was so rewarding, I just had to try it again. But how do you start something like that? Finding Hal Higdon's training plan really was key. It took me from running 9 miles a week to running 9 miles on a Saturday morning in just 6 weeks.
I have a lot of other dreams in my life. How will I ever achieve them? It's overwhelming to think of accomplishing them from where I am now. But if I can break down the goal into many steps, that goal seems a lot more attainable.
There are endless life lessons in running. There are also many spiritual lessons. If my ultimate spiritual goal is to know God and to make Him known, there may not be an obvious halfway point. Some days the end of the race feels far away, some days it feels way too close. I have so much more to learn. But by sticking with the training plan, knowing that I'm going to have to 'fess up to my progress, and not basing my progress on how I feel today, I know I can make it ~ to the 13.1 finish line and the finish line of the Kingdom.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind
and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14
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