Get Out of Your Comfort Zone – Run that Marathon


Less candid today and more storyteller to highlight to you the importance of exercise. Over a couple of decades, I’ve learned more than I ever expected from an activity I picked up when I was young. I’d encourage you to find that thing that takes you to a state of flow. When I run, I’m fortunate, at times, to become completely immersed in this activity. Here the world falls away and clarity of the task at hand comes into center. These applications and lessons from marathoning directly align to life lessons.

First, marathoning takes you out of your comfort zone. Putting on those shoes and starting each run is a new beginning. Recently, the term “mindfulness” has gained in popularity, a similar goodness occurs while running miles run in solitude. By taking time to spend with yourself and your own mind a type of release occurs. I call it defragging the system or clearing out the cobwebs in your brain.

Second, marathoning teaches you goal setting. It does really take time to plan how you can accomplish this race. By setting time aside each day to devote to this task you demonstrate your priority to better yourself. This is one test you know all the answers to and your preparation for the test, is the test itself.

Then run the race before you, get out of your comfort zone, mentally get beyond the pain and run the beast of a 26.2 mile journey. There are times, every runner can recall, when you “hit the wall” or experience a “runner’s high.” For me what I share freely is that running helped me gain new eyes. It took me to a place where I could take in everything around me and appreciate things many don’t get to savor.

My running days began in Iowa watching the sunrise amongst many rows of corn and listening to the crickets chirping. Marathon training presented me with opportunities to grow in reslience while running in the dead of winter in New York. Ice storms in Pennsylvania taught me grit. The fascination of our natural world was seen during the many miles I logged in Arizona jumping over snakes, seeing the dogwoods bloom in North Carolina, and delighting in the smell of the ocean’s mist in Hawaii. Running lets you enjoy the monuments in Washington D.C. alone, there are few tourists up and around before dawn’s break.

In appreciate that you’ve made it thus far in my sharing of a life joy, I challenge you to find your own marathon. Train, prepare, project, visualize, and reach your goal. Getting out of your comfort zone will allow you to find your greatness.
Location: Washington, DC, USA

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