Thursday, September 2, 2010

Mountains Out of Molehills

Do you ever assign to one part of your life way more importance than it deserves? I do this with my running. When I have a good run, I feel invincible, like anything is possible. When I have a bad run, I feel like a complete failure at life.

Luckily, I haven't had a truly bad run in a really long time. Even the more difficult ones have ended well, leaving me with a good feeling of success. Today's run was a lot like that, except that it felt so rough throughout that I was left feeling a little discouraged even though I pushed through and completed my time.

Logic would tell me to score this one as a win: I struggled, persevered, and achieved my goal. The fact that it was a tough win should make me feel more accomplished, not less. Instead, this morning's run left me discouraged and doubtful that I'll be able to complete my 10K on Halloween. (I still feel okay about the 5K, though not quite as confident.)

I'm frustrated with myself for the negativity. In my head I hear Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally: "I'm not saying it didn't mean anything. I'm just saying why does it have to mean everything?" Of course, he wasn't talking about running...:) Still, this is what I'm saying to myself because I know no good can come from blowing one difficult run out of proportion! One run, good or bad, isn't everything!!!

Are there things in your life that you place too much importance on? If so, what do you tell yourself to help keep it all in perspective? I fear this run may haunt me next time if I don't convince myself that it doesn't have to mean everything.

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