Hills Make Me Mad

I made a huge realization today.

I was on a 2 mile run preparing for my sprint triathlon in September. For those of you who may not know, a sprint triathlon is a short distance triathlon designed for an elite athlete to be able to complete in under an hour. I have no such expectations for myself this go round! My race will be comprised of a 400 meter swim, 13.1 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile (5K) run.

Ok... Back to the realization... So I'm training and hills make me mad. I see a hill and I'm mad that God didn't make the world flat... In my frustration I realized I was running down a hill consumed with dread for the next hill that was fast approaching. I wasn't even enjoying the decline! I didn't notice I was given a chance to catch my breath to ready myself for the next hill!

I think we do that a lot in life. We have a lot of crazy. Maybe its family, work or any number of other things, but we find ourselves in a grind, another season of busy. In those seasons we may find the hill impossibly long and steep. Sometimes the hill requires us to slow down and walk! But every hill has a decline.

I wonder if you're like me and realize once the top has been reached and you've survived it, you forget to rest. You forget to catch your breath on the way down because another hill is coming once you reach the bottom.

I finish a film project and am still not present with my family because my mind is already worrying about and fixating on my next project, the next climb.

There will always be a hill to climb. God didn't make our lives or this world flat. Because of it, we will always need to push ourselves up the hill. But, its vital we remember to catch our breath once the hill has been climbed.

On the way down the hill, I had already decided I would fail because the next hill was too long and to steep.

I enter into project already confident I'll fail because the project is bigger than me.

In this moment, I remember, I'm running down the hill and if I failed to appreciate that, the next hill would break me. If I enter into the project resigned to failure, I will be miserable, do sub-standard work and maybe, just maybe, be ok.

But, if I rest in the downtime and climb the hill knowing it won't last forever, I can finish strong and be stronger for the next hill.

Success isn't how fast you climbed. It's that you climbed and you're not afraid to do it again. It's not finishing the climb and hiding so you don't have to try it again. It's celebrating the success knowing you GET to go out and try again!

What hills are you afraid to climb?