Over a year ago I wrote a post with this quote:

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

The post had a lot to do with me getting into running and races, etc. I also mentioned that I felt like the gazelle in the above quote on most days. Not anymore. These days I don’t just feel like a lion I am the lion. I’m still a baby lion but I wake up every morning ready to run life. This is probably going to be a mix of a couple different things today but hopefully it will all come together at the end.

I stopped running sometime in the middle of 2014. I’m not going to get into the whys and hows because it really doesn’t matter – the point is I stopped. I wasn’t running with lions… I was running with gazelles and it made it way easier to quit. I’m not a quitter by nature but sometimes when you get too comfortable/complacent/frustrated with life that switch in your brain that says “feed me all the pasta and Netflix” switches. Anyone have that switch? I did. I killed it. Okay, not really… I’ve found a good balance of downtime and grind time but I can count the days on two hands I’ve had “down time” in the past two plus months. Which is craaaaazy because as one of my friends recently put it, whenever they asked me what I was doing I said, “Oh, just playing with my dog and listening to my record player.” I mean… it’s kinda true.

People who know me have heard me say I need my “introvert time” but it’s just crazy how I need so much less of it now. I work, I go to the gym or go train, and I sleep. And, I write. I think it makes the down time moments that more special. It makes me appreciate taking the time to slow down and just let go and relax. I have been going a lot of places but that just goes hand in hand with me saying yes to doing as much as I can. I want to do so much this summer I can’t even stand it!! Time is a wastin’! Come the end of this month that Bucket List is going to start getting busted.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve stopped or you’ve been working on your goals for years… if you do not have the drive and the dedication to want what you are working towards more than anything you will get burned out because none of it is easy. You will want to quit and there will be circumstances around you that will make it easy to quit. You will falter and give up because you feel like you have failed. People will constantly try to bring you down and you will be tempted to let them. You will get tired.

Life is every day. Your goals are every day. What you want is every single day. And, it’s hours of your days. As cheesy as it sounds this is your lifestyle. THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Nobody is gonna take your butt to the gym, nobody is going to take that cannoli out of your mouth when you’re bored and eating for the sake of eating, nobody is going to slap you when you’re being a bitch (okay they might but it’s not going to teach you anything), nobody is going to lift your two hands and put them around someone who needs a hug or help, nobody is going to physically move your body to sit next to someone who just needs you to be there for them. It’s all on you, baby.

A common misconception is that once you reach a certain goal you are finished. Ummmmmm… no. Sure, you will get to a place where you are satisfied or you’ve reached a certain achievement but then what… you’re just going to stop? NO. You keep going! The lion doesn’t stop or it’s going to starve. Until I’m cold and dead in the ground I am not stopping what I’m doing. I have been blessed with health and a body that is capable of more than I even know and I can’t imagine not living every day of my life pushing myself.

That’s why it’s so important to run with other lions if you want to be a lion. You must surround yourself with people who are working just as hard as you are. It doesn’t have to be the same goals but running with people who are going just as hard or harder than you is vital. I have so much to learn and so much I want to learn I have recognized I can’t do it alone. I don’t want to do it alone.

You will lose some people along the way – they won’t understand the time, the commitment, the struggle, the joys. And, it’s okay. It doesn’t mean they’re bad people it just means they can’t go with you on this journey. Maybe they will leave you forever or maybe they will watch from the sidelines for awhile. You will find or reconnect with those that have that passion and it will be better than the mediocre you settled for before. It’s your job to keep moving forward. To continually better yourself. Honestly, I think I’m a lot more fun to be around now than I was before and it’s been a game changer. You will attract like minded people to you when you are pursuing who you want to be.

Stay focused. Keep moving. The rest will fall into place, I promise. It takes time but anything worth having or doing is going to take time. It will always be worth the persistence and patience.