Life-long Marathon

Life-long marathon

 Sometimes it takes an adventure, within the journey, to remind us of our initial excitement.

In my last year of school I was a Performing Arts Prefect for the coolest (and winning) house, Batten. At the start of the year, before school went back, our group of about 30 or so prefects went away for a weekend up north with the Deans of the school. It was an awesome opportunity to grow closer as a team, overcome challenges and have those good old late night sess’s of ‘Never have I ever’ (no better way to really bond then finding out about…oh sorry can’t say, besides what happens at camp stays at camp. I guess you’ll just never know…)

Anyway, one thing which really stuck out to me was one of the team building challenges we had to do. A 16km run, where you only finished once your whole team was across the finish line.

Now you may be wondering, why did that stand out so much for you Aspen? Well, not just because Batten (our house) won with a record time of 2 hrs and 5 seconds, but there was a variety of things:

1)      Majority of my teammates were/are excellent athletics. Two were part of surf club and the other, part of the first 15 rugby team. I on the other hand this chubby white chick, who wasn’t much of a fitness guru, having given up all social sports at the ripe old age of 12.

2)      I didn’t want to let the team down by dropping out. Well either that, or I just had too much pride to do so.

3)      I secretly had been running every day for the past year and wanted to see if I could stand the endurance, having only clocked in a regular distance of 10-12kms.

 

Okay I lied about the not having done sports in years, but the only sport I had been doing was running and skiing, two fairly independent sports.

Now I’ll be perfectly honest, there were certainly times in amongst that run when I just wanted to stop and give up. (Round about the 12km mark, it hits you like a freight train). Despite that, I do remember the occasional time when I would just get this little boost of hope. A bit closer Aspen. You can do this. Whoop lets go team.

I needed those brief moments of motivation, to get me to the finish line 16kms away.

 

You see, it’s motivation that will get you started, but it’s discipline that will see you to the end.

 

Unfortunately it has taken some time for that pill of truth to finally get into my system. The reality is, is that if we want to see change, whether it’s in our own lives or in our support of others, we need to hold true to the encouragements that come in the times of motivation and support.

Also important to note, if I had allowed self-talk like “Aspen you fat lumpa laad, you’ll never do this just quit now,” to be my motivator then I would have dropped out in the first 200…metres, not miles.

Essentially it is being conscious of what we allow to motivate us, to become our driving force.

·         Is it something that is lifting you up or pulling you down?

·         Does it motivate you do the best and you feel encouraged?

·         Or is it devaluing your worth and minimising your significance?

Whatever you allow to become your motivator, prepare for it to become your fuel for the journey. Therefore choose wisely and be discerning about what you allow to speak truth into your life, and motivate you.