Pearls

Sometimes too many pearls of wisdom go unnoticed. Today I’m taking the time to stop and notice them. 

Each of these is a lesson we can apply to our lives and certainly share with our children. 

As usual, most of my deep thoughts come from my runs and the incredible people I talk to during them. Here is a sampling of some of the recent wisdom I’ve gleaned:

- Negativity has no place if you don’t allow it in. This one came from two places in the same week and I felt that meant it had to be concretized. My good friend and running/life mentor actually won the Atlanta marathon this past Sunday. When describing part of his race, he told me it was cold and raining and for several miles he battled negative thoughts and considered quitting. It is so hard to be cold and tired and know you can just stop if you want - but his determination won and he consciously decided that negativity had no space in his head. Amazingly, he won the race and honestly, imagine he’d never know what he was capable of had he given it the space to grow. 

-  You are how you see yourself  - just this morning I went running with some friends - I was very achey and tired when we started out. I had done a race on Sunday and was still Charlie horse and also had tried some new workout style which left me with aching muscles I didn’t know existed. I commented to my friend how I felt like an old lady running. He surprised me by saying he doesn’t often hear me talk about myself that way. It was a good reminder - once he told me I consciously told myself You are only as old as you feel and you really shouldn’t talk about yourself like that because you’ll start believing it. Not only did I make it through the run, but I actually finished a Half Marathon without even planning it. 

Drop the agenda and take the time to hear what’s being said - we’ve discussed before how to be a good listener (In this blog post). All too often we are only hearing what is being said around us but not actually listening to it. In a recent online discussion forum, I was amazed how it seemed two parallel conversations were occurring. There were people who came to the conversation mostly to have a monologue. They were literally not reading what people were writing and responding with rhetoric and their preconceived notions. If they’d take a step back, drop their agenda and possibly take a step down from their high horse, they might have come away from the conversation with a very different perspective. The entire episode reminded me of the game broken telephone we played as kids. 

-Appreciate what you have - and acknowledge it. A friend mentioned to me that after having an enlightening conversation with a colleague - he was pleasantly surprised that the older, more experienced colleague thanked him for his fresh perspective on things. All too often, we take for granted the big and small kindnesses that come into our lives. Take the time to notice them and be grateful.  

-Energy is infectious - spread it at every opportunity-  I am part of an amazing running community. The people in it have become my friends and role models. One thing that always amazes me is how infectious their energy is. I can try something alone and struggle to get through it but somehow when we are together we accomplish insane feats. Despite everyone having busy lives and schedules, everyone makes the time to get out early (and I mean super early) and work on our running as a group. And it comes with energy - the cheering, electric, whooping type of energy that literally energizes you. Despite it being one of our hardest workouts during the week, everyone walks away feeling uplifted. 

There are so many more things I could touch on but those are today’s highlights. I figured a good thing shared is twice as good 😊