How Far Can You Push Yourself?

I once heard someone say that if you are always succeeding then maybe you are not setting your sights high enough. I think that’s true. In order to really be satisfied in life, we need to continually push ourselves to the limit.

I’m often asked why I would ever want to attempt to run the 26.2 miles of the Disney Marathon in Jan. Much of the reason for me, is seeing how far I can push myself. I never thought I’d be able to run a marathon, but as I train more and more, I find myself getting closer and closer to achieving that goal.

There’s something so powerful about learning to quiet that inner voice that says “you can’t”. By continually pushing to our perceived limits and beyond, we see what we are truly capable of.

Sometimes that will mean failure, but failure is okay as long as you learn something from it, and that brings you one step closer to the eventual goal. I’ve long hard runs (17 mile +) lately that have felt like a failure. I had to start walking on some of them, and had no energy left for the last few miles.

But I’m trying to learn from these failures. Did I not eat enough? Should I be trying to zone out more? Do I need a fresh route to run on? One of my favorite sayings is

Keep failing until you succeed

At the end of the day, the training runs are just a tool to get me up to speed for the marathon. Better to run out of energy on a training run and learn from it than running out of energy on the marathon.

I think everyone needs something to truly throw themselves into in order to be happy — Something that uses their best skills and is a stretch for them to succeed at. We grow by continually stretching ourselves.

I love how Theodore Roosevelt advocated the “Strenuous Life” and lived it himself. He was always looking for the next challenge to push him physical and mentally.

I’m currently reading The River of Doubt which chronicles the dangerous South American exploration he went on later in his life after he lost the presidency. Even when he was older and his political career complete, he was still pushing himself into amazingly difficult situations requiring great amounts of stamina and strength.

He never rested on his laurels and nor should we.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
— Charles Kingsley