Hit The Wall

Angela Duckworth once said, ~Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in, day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make the future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.~ If you think about it, each one of us has the ability to display and channel within ourselves a marathon runner type of grit in regard to achieving our personal and/or professional life goals we’re individually “running” towards, so to speak. Essentially, it's just a matter of staying completely focused, keeping a gradual, steady pace and not overexerting ourselves in the following three ways: mentally, emotionally, as well as physically.

As I said before, each one of us has the ability to display and channel within ourselves a marathon runner type of grit in regard to achieving our personal and/or professional goals we’re individually “running” towards, so to speak. I think it’s safe to say being able to keep a gradual steady pace mentally while “running” towards our intended personal/professional goals is what we all not only strive for, but try to maintain in the beginning. True, it takes a tremendous amount of mental discipline to keep ourselves focused and at the same time avoiding /blocking out any sort of negative distractions. Distractions that will inevitably interrupt the aforementioned gradual steady pace causing us to mentally break our stride we’ve been striving to maintain.

Without a doubt, when the gradual, steady mental pace we’ve been “running” gets interrupted, we can certainly become affected emotionally as we’re trying to reach our intended personal/professional goals we’re most definitely targeting. Fear, doubt, worry, frustration, annoyance, disappointment, etc. are just a number of emotional distractions we try not to feel knowing they can be felt at any given point during the marathon. Thinking about it further, keeping our emotions in check is considered one of the key aspects in being able to show how much of that inner grit we have. Why? You see, if we’re unable to keep ourselves emotionally in check then we’ll find ourselves being thrown off balance thus causing us to lose rather than gain any momentum whatsoever.

Let me ask this question to those who ran a marathon before: what are two qualities that are deemed considerably important in being able to sustain one’s goal in order to get to the quintessential finish line. If you answered stamina and endurance then you’re correct, especially when it comes to the physical aspect of running. In that same context, we should sustain/build up that same stamina and endurance as it pertains to the individual personal/professional marathon we’re all “running” that is considered to be a long, grueling trek indeed. Unfortunately, the instinct to physically push beyond what we’re capable of is an absolute risk and potentially a mistake because of our driving determination in wanting to reach that finish line sooner rather than later, which can work for or against us.

In retrospect, every marathon runner has experienced obstacles such as the painful burning sensation in their muscles. It’s par for course when you’re a marathon runner who is trained to push past/block out the pain. Although the marathon each of us is running is metaphorical, we’re doing our best in pushing past/blocking out the painful obstacles such as the burning sensation in our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, which can be a totally exhausting experience to go through on a seemingly daily basis. Of course, it’s how we adapt to those obstacles that will show how much true grit we have. In the end, to my fellow “marathon runners”, be patient as we’ll reach our respective finish lines in due time and hopefully we don’t hit the wall on our way there.