We live in a world that’s moving so fast. Anything we want is right there at our fingertips. If you buy something on Amazon, and you can buy anything there, chances are you may receive it that same day. People have become so accustomed to getting what they want in this buy now, pay later world.
Everything is also disposable. When I was growing up families had one car. Generally they kept it until it didn’t run anymore. The only phone we had was on the wall in our kitchen and it had a rotary dial and a wire. We had one television in the house in the living room. Nowadays, cars are changed like underwear and almost every person has their own cellphone. Appliances and TVs are replaced every other year.
With all this, it’s no surprise that I fell victim to this – I want it and I want it now mentality. Click I buy a book, click my groceries are coming, click a new pair of shoes and on and on it goes.
When I signed up for coaching for my half marathon, the coach talked to me about running in certain heart rate zones. She said I’d need to stay under 140 initially. Ha, half a block from my house I was at that. She said progress would come over time. I’d have to trust the plan and put in the work and in twenty weeks I’d see growth and run my race. Twenty weeks!!!! Isn’t there a click or app for that??
Well, this morning on my long run I had lots of time to reflect on this journey. I’m in week 13 and running 10 miles. Darn she was right. Putting in the work and trusting the process had paid off. This all made me wonder when I stopped believing that.
I was raised on hard work pays off. I worked my butt off as did my husband to raise our three kids. Why then when it came to my health was I always looking for the quick fix. I knew in my heart you had to put the work in, but it was so much easier to seek the magic fix, or worse quit when it got hard.
This morning I realized it’s about delayed gratification. The ability to delay gratification until the work is done is critical to perseverance. Trusting that if you put the effort and work in, over time you will see results. I’m not talking miracles, I’m talking results. So for me today, I finally cracked 10 miles. It wasn’t fast or beautiful but I did it. This week my nutritional choices were on par and I felt stronger out there. My scale hasn’t shown tremendous losses, but I’m feeling healthier. This work is paying off.
I’m not going to say it’s easy. It’s definitely not. When I’m running slowly and someone speeds by, I want to say forget this heart rate and take off. When someone offers me pizza for lunch and I want it now, but know I just had it for dinner last night, I have to dig in and say no thank you. I have to stay the course and in time I’ll reach my goals.
I’m definitely in it for the long haul. If I want to see changes I’ve got to put in the work. Hope you’ll join me. I’ve got a feeling it will be so worth it.
Reclaiming My Health 