#TruthBooking: I ran a full marathon once. I count it as one of my proudest moments of personal accomplishment. I went from a person who had never, ever run to finishing a full in 16 months. Some ultra fit friends said it couldn’t be done. But I believed it was possible, and I wanted to see what I was capable of, so I went for it.
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A marathon is finished one step at a time, one mile at a time, and even before the race- one day at a time where you choose to get up and move consistently. Plenty of setbacks surface, and ample moments exist where the reality doesn’t look anything like the plan. Adjustments are made, timelines are reworked. But the important thing is you keep getting up and keep believing in what you see in your mind is possible. Those same principles apply on race day. Depending on what the course or the context of the day throws at you, sometimes you have to adjust your expectations, you move to plan B. You walk the water stations. In my full, I ran alone, kept my own pace. I often joked that I was a completer not a competer. In traditional marathon training you only train up to 20 miles. So there are 6.2 miles of unknown physical territory. Somewhere around mile 21, I thought I had come to the end of myself. I could feel my edges, and I questioned every bit of whether I was up to the challenge of finishing. I set my mind on the thing I had pictured for 16 months and I pressed on, in pain and self-doubt, with all the critics in my head. I made the voice that believed louder and I kept taking one step at a time. Until I finished. Victorious!
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Making this new record has been more akin to a marathon than anything else I’ve ever done. I am passing through mile 21 into mile 22. I won’t lie, I am tired deep in my bones. I have never sustained this amount of focused creative work for this long. I stay up late, late at night after the kids go down writing content, mining through edits of videos, and thinking about merch designs. I have a big dream and an ambitious strategy to go with it. It’s the eleventh hour, the budget is tight and money feels stressful. As with any major project, there are always line items that cost more than expected. This has been no different. The record has had more creative delays than I anticipated. I’ve had to adjust my timelines multiple times over. I’ve had to stop and sit on the curb a few times, I’ve questioned if I I could go on. David has at different times been my water station, my pacer, my cheerleader, the voice in my headphones telling me I could do it.
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And you know what's true? I can do it. I AM DOING IT. It’s happening, even in the exhaustion-laced exhilaration. One foot in front of the other. Take the next step. All the passion and creativity and hope and belief In the good that will come of it. Mind’s eye ever holding the vision. Clear eyes, full hearts, friends.
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What marathon are you in the messy middle of right now? Is it a season of healing trauma that feels endless? Is it a rebirth after a relationship ended? Are you launching your big dream into the world? You can do it. Look around. YOU ARE DOING IT. It’s happening even amidst the exhaustion-laced exhilaration. YOU ALREADY ARE DOING IT. And you’re worth finishing the work. You are loved, generous friends ❤️
#TruthBooking: One Foot in Front of the Other