The end of the year is normally a time of reflection. I tend to do a lot of thinking while I’m out running. One of the mornings this past week, I woke up in a bad mood and I knew I needed to get out and run. I needed to get rid of my bad energy! It was a rainy day and I didn’t want to get my new shoes wet, so of course I put my old shoes on. Not even a mile into my run, I realized what a bad decision it was to use my old shoes. I kept running and one of Queen’s songs came on “I want to break free” and I realized that my old shoes represented my old habits and my bad mood. The further I ran, the more I realized that I was in a bad mood because I was holding on to useless bad energy and negative thoughts. I was holding on to unreasonable expectations for my life. My old shoes were not going to carry me forward in life. In fact, my old shoes were holding me back. That’s when I figured out it’s time to make a change. I put these old shoes on, thinking that they would be able to help me get through these rainy 4 miles. In the end, I just ended up hurting myself physically.
I think the lesson here is that we hold on to things from our past that simply prevent us from moving forward in life. Like old shoes, they can cause harm and prevent us from succeeding. You typically need new running shoes every 400-500 miles. For some, that means changing out your shoes every 4 to 5 months. Going past the recommended 400-500 miles, could result in injury. What would happen if we re-evaluated our expectations, our goals and even our lives every 4 to 5 months? What if we stop trying to rewrite our past and concentrate on improving ourselves for a better future?
I ran 4 miles in my old shoes and I took that time to re-evaluate my attitude, my goals, and my life. Although my shins are cursing me, I needed that run to remind me to let go of the things I cannot control and to change the things I can.
I hope all is well in your world! Best wishes for 2015! I think it’s going to be a great year.
