Endurance :
Let me talk of this word. Endurance!
I do long distance running.
I run almost every day. But some days are not so good to run. I notice that there are days when I would be looking at the watch to check how far I have come and how, much time is left to finish the distance. And in those days, my runs seems to never end. And when they do, I don’t feel the level of satisfaction that I could have.
And such days are not interesting. Interesting are those days when I lose sense of time. The days when I don’t wish to see my watch or tell myself how far I have come.
Those are the days when I have had good sleeps in the night before. Those days come when I have put my mind into the right state before I began running.
And this is what I learned from running long distance about endurance.
1. If you wish to do something in life like a long term career that may last a life or if you get into a relationship with someone then start your journey with a fulfilled mind.
And then trust the process. We often start faltering in career or relationships as we fail to endure it any longer.
Don’t worry. The best thing that endurance running teaches is to stay calm and keep going. Forget about how far you have come and how far you have to go, just be in the state where you are and have as much fun in the process of living that you don’t need to think of the results.
Results or goals don’t tell the whole story. There could be multiple ways to reach the goals. When the goal becomes the primary purpose, you will cease to enjoy anything more!
It often happens in life. You don’t enjoy the work that you do every day. Because you think, “I am not getting that promotion. I am not getting that pay raise. My numbers are not increasing.”
When this starts to happen, then you will start getting the burns. You will start exhausting yourself from the pursuit. Your mind will become restless and the peace would simply disappear.
What is the hurry in increasing the numbers. Sometimes, we need to even walk while running a marathon. These are the moments when we runners are damn tired. But we don’t give up!
In such times, I don’t even want to think of my goal. The only goal I keep in my mind is to just keep going. My focus is on the act of doing.
And this has brought me immense peace and tranquility in my overall life and living. This is the state of meditation where you are not in the past or the future but your mind is steady on the present moment.
And when this happens, I have achieved my purpose of running. The real essence of long distance running is to enter into the state of meditation where you don’t think too much but feel all the positive emotions.
Long distance runner should therefore not think of time, numbers, pace or other competitive stats. These may give thrill for some time but they lose their essence over time. The real joy will flow into your life when you simply start to live what you do for every single moment and That’s Real ENDURANCE is all about!
Great article 👍