One of my dearest friends ran the NYC marathon for the first time today in 4:10:53. Such a huge achievement and I stood there in awe as she showed me her medal with a huge smile on her face.
This Dream has been many years in the making and today Diane finally made that dream a reality. A memorable day indeed. Of course…you cant wake up one morning and say “im going to run 26.2 miles today”. This takes preparation, training, understanding, fueling and at the end of the day focus and endurance, both physically and mentally.
Small consistent steps to get to the desired result.
Running the marathon, isn’t about sprinting, but pacing yourself. You are in it for the long haul, many challenges present themselves on the way, but you keep going.
As the end of 2010 draws near, I’ve started to think about my goals and how I am feeling based on what I wanted to accomplish this year. Looking at my own “training program” and thinking about learning experiences and how I can “train” better next year. Which of my “miles” of the past year were my personal best? Did I pace myself?
Photo Credit: Dukes of Flatbush
Tony Robbins, Said “We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year” I completely agree. Why do we always try to sprint?
If we thought of the year or effectively our dream or goal as our own “marathon” and each step or milestone of achievement the incremental miles, creating our own “training program” or “pace” could be really powerful.
Devising my own dreams “training program” is something I have been doing for a number of years, but it was only today when I thought of Diane training and accomplishing what she did, did I realize the similarity and how powerful this analogy can be as we start to think about the year ahead.
Photo Credit: Accelerating your success
Congratulations Diane and to all the NYC Marathon runners who paced themselves and kept going to achieve their dream of running this distance today.
We can all run our own great distances, those small well paced steps we are all taking each day are so important. Don’t think of it as a race, who comes first or last doesn’t matter. Its about us achieving our personal best and running after our dreams. Celebrating the 5k’s and marathons along the way, not sprinting towards the finish line, so we don’t get a chance to enjoy the view and celebrate the milestones along the way. Enjoy the steady pace of achievement, we have many miles to celebrate and marathons to be proud of over the coming years.
Hi, I'm Louise and thank you so much for visiting me here. I am a mixed media artist, who is passionate about combining the healing energy of nature and color with the meditative process of mandala making
hi there you,
yes, I agree. I am often trying to run a sprint each day, week, month and nearly finish myself. But then I do look back often and think, 'wow, how did I achieve that?' I have so many goals and without them I feel a little bereft! Maybe I am addicted to goals! I find them so powerful though.
I am inspired and amazed by what you do, and what you achieve; your energy, inspiration and accomplishments. I identify and it's so nice to share in anothers enthusiastic journey 🙂 Good luck for your 2011 goals/dreams, I look forward to sharing more . . .
Amelia.x
Great post–my son just ran his marathon last month too (actually, he lives in NYC, and this marathon is in his future),but I also compared his goals to mine on my blog—more in the way of his inspiring me. I believe that we can do anything that we set out to do as long as we bellieve it and strive for it.
fabulous comment. You are so right – we tend to get so caught up in one or two small moments but let so much of the bigger picture fall to the way-side for the sake of instant gratification.it is a good reminder to make all those moments add up to something larger.
Hi Louise, so nice to hear these words today as I am pondering the idea of a little business of my own. As I think of Christmas ahead and the sales that I might make if I time this right, this was a perfect post for me.
I hear you…to the core…
What an achievement – and you are bang on the money with that post. So interesting. Off to lace up my virtual trainers now…
Beth
loving this post, louise. thank you so much! it really hits home.
best always,
-juliette
Love Love Love this post Louise. How true those words ring. Very good.
And congrates to your friend what a accomplishment!
Dearest sweet Louise, such a wonderful achivement and a beautiful post! I am inspired by you ~ all that you do, all that you have done and all that you are doing. Yes and i do need to take the pledge to tackle my scary to do list slowly and easily and to be gentle to myself. Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!
This post hit home for me today. I ran my first marathon in June, and was happy with my training and slow progress toward my goal of 26.2. I'm not so patient with my progress on my creative goals. Thanks for giving me some perspective!