Life is Like Running

God I wish I looked like this running!

I went for an amazing run this morning, on the first sunny day we’ve had in Seattle since I moved here and had a thought.

The road I ran reminded me so much of my life the last few years. It had some really great down-hills where I could look at the beautiful scenery and just coast, turn up my iTunes and enjoy the amazingness of life. Then there is of course the up-hill climb that always follows a good down-hill coast right? It’s just like in life, you can’t ever get too cocky or confident in those easy beautiful down-hills because just when you do a nasty climb will be waiting around the next turn.

We just had some pretty scary weather here, so I ran over swampy roads filled with mud, areas that had been washed away by recent floods, debris filling the road…just like my 2011~!~ Lots of crap in the road that you need to be creative to get through, but NOTHING you cant get through. Nothing you cant hop or jump over or worst case run right through. Yeah you might ruin your new Nike’s, and come out the other side of something unpleasant a little changed, a little more ragged for the ware but you CAN GET THROUGH IT.

Sometimes we can see the big picture…

And I have and will. And so can you.

Then there is the BEAUTIFUL moments, like turning a corner this morning and being comforted with a panoramic view of a horse ranch and Mt Rainier as a picture perfect back drop. The moments that come up on you, shock you and take your breath away. God I’ve had so many of those amazing moments. Those are the ones that keep us on the path, the ones that keep us motivated to get through the mud.

There are moments where we can see the end of the road, it looks clear, straight and for the most part easy. We can see that Big Picture, and we are motivated to go after it. It looks completely within our grasp. But like life always does there are surprises along the way, things put in our path to discourage us and throw off our concentration, get us to stop running. To quit trying and give up. Sit on the side of the road and call a cab, go home and crawl in bed. But the reality of life is that you have to remove that option. It’s not there. The only option is finishing what you started out to do, no matter how difficult. And trust me there are moments when to keep going all you can do is look at your feet right in front of you and put one foot in front of the other, to keep you from looking at the whole mess and losing faith. And that’s OK. AS LONG AS YOU DON’T QUIT.

Sometimes not so much..

When those hard times come we do whatever we need to, so we don’t let the challenges in our way stop us from reaching our goals and our desired outcome. And the beauty is that when you turn that corner, there is going to be another amazing view that will knock the wind out of you. You’ll look up to the sky on a day when the sun is shining and say… “I made it”.

 

 

Sarah Centrella is the author of the book Hustle Believe Receive which teaches you how to apply the #HBRMethod to change your life and live your dream.

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