There have been A LOT of mornings lately where I’ve woken up and asked myself “Why?”, “what was I thinking?”, etc.
Most mornings, I simply don’t want to get out of bed. Most mornings I’m seriously questioning my decisions. To train for a winter marathon…to train for a marathon period… to work out 6 days a week…
This isn’t the first time I’ve questioned myself like this though…and the answer is usually the same every time.
WHY?
WHY on God’s green earth would I choose to put myself through this? I have a perfectly good couch to sit on, lots of tv/movies to watch, games to play, and books to read. I don’t need to work out 6 days a week…I CERTAINLY don’t need to train for a freaking MARATHON…in the winter…in half the time people normally train…
Something must be wrong with me.
I mean, how can there NOT be? Every time I reach my goal…every time I achieve a new height…I just push right past and keep going higher.
Shouldn’t I be satisfied?
Shouldn’t we all be satisfied? I have lots of friends who have (I think I said this recently) had some great achievements lately. They’ve lost a ton of weight, they ran their first 5K! Shouldn’t that be it? I mean, they thought they’d never run a 5K…and they finally checked that off the list. WHY are we still going…and pushing…and refusing to be satisfied? Aren’t we done? Pack it up and go home? Did what we came here to do?
No.
If that were the case, we wouldn’t have cars. Or planes. Or freaking bikes. Walking was enough, why push it and figure out how to go farther, higher, or faster?
We must continue to challenge ourselves. We owe it to ourselves. We deserve more. Why should we settle for mediocrity? If you have the drive, determination, and motivation to get where you are now, why wouldn’t you reach for that next level of achievement?
“Work like there is someone working twenty-four hours a day to take it all away from you” – Mark Cuban
You must be hungry for success. You must believe that you have not yet reached the mountain-top. This is one of those cheesy quotes, but your desire for success must be greater than your fear of failure.
I could go on for days.
The bottom line here is that the moment you stop trying and settle for where you’re at is the moment you have given up. It’s the moment where you forfeit all the hard work you’ve put in and begin to backslide into mediocrity. And y’know what? You deserve more than that. You were meant for more than that.
Always reach higher.
I really just came by to steal the first graphic on this post for my own blog, but I find your story and your blog really inspiring as I attempt to transform my own body. Good luck to you in all of your future endeavors! (P.S. I did steal the pic, though…)