This past April I completed my 4th marathon. For someone who trained for her first marathon at 15 years old and loved running long distance I wasn't able to run a marathon until after my accident, due to conflicts with cross country. Sometimes I wish I would have run one just to see how I would have done because honestly I think I would have kicked some major marathon butt.
Sometimes when I workout on my ski erg or mountain board around the surrounding neighborhood and trials I listen to music, podcasts, books etc and other times I just enjoy the quiet and being in sync with nature. Typically when I run the marathon I am with the TRAILS program with the University of Utah Healthcare and there is a support rider with me a lot of the way just in case. But this time they'd check in on me, but I did the majority of the marathon on my own.
This gave me a lot of time to think a reflect, ponder and pray while enjoying being outdoors and moving my body. While I "ran" I really focused on gratitude and try to sincerely thank as many police officers and other volunteers along the course.
I've always loved races especially marathons because of the energy and excitement in the air. The power of the human spirit is almost tangible as people encourage each other along the difficult course. As I encouraged others and was encouraged myself, I started to think about the human spirit and true GRIT that is displayed during races like marathons. I watched as other runners pushed through the pain & kept running, even though I'm sure there were times that they wanted to stop.
All my thoughts brought me to this.
DOING HARD THINGS HELPS BUILD RESILIENCE & GRIT.
Each athlete CHOSE to do something hard. No one was forcing them to run the marathon and no one was forcing them to keep going. There was something within each one of them that kept them moving forward.
In the past I read a few books and articles on resilience and grit. But watching these other marathons it just seemed to click in my mind. They were CHOOSING to do hard things and they CHOSE to keep going forward even though it was difficult and even painful.
If we want to be prepared for difficult times and challenges in our lives we need to be building resilience and grit right now. Even when life is easy and good, especially when life is easy and good. We need to challenge and push ourselves so that when those hard times come we know we can do hard things and keep pushing forward.
I thought about my own experience and wondered how did I bounce back from my accident and how was I able to handle it as well as I did? And I truly feel that part of it was because I was used to doing hard things. I was used to pushing myself at practice when I didn't think I could do another 1000 meter repeat or finish strong during the last mile or those final strides of a race. I had learned how to push through pain & do hard things, even though I didn't have to do them. My mind and body had already learned to do hard things so when my accident happened, I already had a base of resilience and grit to push forward and keep moving. I knew how to do hard things, but this time it was something I didn't get to choose.
You don’t have to go run a marathon to build resilience and grit, but challenge yourself to do something out of your comfort zone, something that will stimulate growth and help build grit and resilience. Do something thats hard for you. It may be waking up early or not pushing the snooze button, it may be trying to run a mile or a long hike, learning a new skill and sticking with it even though it's hard and uncomfortable.
You don't always get to choose what happens to you, but you always get to choose how you react. But when life is easy and going your way CHOOSE to build resilience and grit by doing hard things.
An awesome talk reminding us how -> Hard is Good
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