Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Challenge Yourself

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
The above is from the opening pages of Derek Clayton's excellent book Running To The Top. The quote is attributed to Theodore Roosevelt and reminds me of what Percy Cerutty wrote,"We never fully grow as a person unless on occasion we challenge ourselves."
The questions we should ask are, have we allowed our running to become boring and unchallenging? Do we approach it as a routine,much like we would a household chore or a job? If you suspect so,than why not take the time today and challenge yourself? Set some new goals, even if they might seem a bit difficult or unreasonable. You will find that in doing so it will add a whole new dimension to your life and running. We must resist the inclination to say,"I can't do this ...I don't have the time to do that.....". As I have said before,in running, sometimes the journey is equal to the satisfaction you achieve in arriving.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the awesome, inspiring and interesting posts!

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  2. Many thanks--it's always nice to know that what you're doing is appreciated.

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  3. Dave, what is said but not underlined is risk & failure are important features that can't be left out of the equation. Great accomplishments are many times preceded by failure. Somewhere along the way it had become completely unfashionable to ail to fail in trying something novel. All real learning comes from a rage to master.

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  4. Well said--the great and insightful athletes and coaches recognize that failure, to some degree, is inevitable and good things can come from it. You are so right about failing becoming unfashionable--the media doesn't appear to understand that not winning all the time,especially in running, is part of the process--I think back to what Cerutty said and I paraphrase-----"those who don't do ---can't know." The media and most of America is clueless in this area.

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