Are You In The Shadows or The Shade?
I went for a morning workout and run today, which is a goal of mine to do more of: workout early and often.
Here's the regiment:
Run 1 mile
30 pullups
30 air squats
40-meter Sprints (2x)
Run 1 mile
30 pullups
30 air squats
40-meter Sprints (2x)
Run 1.5 mile
And... Then walk the 0.75 miles up my hill...
I say walk, because my hill is a beast: three-fourths of a mile of 45-degrees of incline fun. And I was absolutely dead tired. It was getting hot, I was feeling light-headed and I was regretting my distance choice.
I blame Jesse Itzler and his Seal training book I've been reading. Gosh darn millionaire and his superhuman friend. (If you're interested, you can read my notes on the book here).
While I was reaching the end of my run, I kept telling myself I had to get to the base of the hill where the street I live on begins. The sun was beating down, but there was a decent amount of trees with some shade about 100 meters before my goal.
And I was very tempted to stop.
Fortunately, I kept going, forcing through the last bit of the run in the blazing sun. I made it. And wouldn't you know, lo and behold there was shade and a cool wall to sit on right on the other side of my goal.
Ah, gratifying perseverance.
Once I was sitting down, resting for the final stretch up the hill, I had a contemplative moment...
If I were to stop at the shade before, I'd be in the valley. In fact the Scripture that went through my mind was Psalm 23, "yay, though I walk through through the valley of the shadow of death." I would have failed to reach my goal. For me, in that context, the "shade" would have been more like a "shadow".
On most other days, in any other situation, the shade would have been welcomed and wonderful. The difference in this case was context.
My takeaway was this: When you're looking at life opportunities, consider if the opportunities being presented to you are really a shadow in disguise.
If they don't align with your known goal, the answer is clear.
Don't lose focus. Persevere. Fight to achieve your goals. Never settle.
There may just be shade on the other side of the finish line.
Pic of a section of my hill. No, it's not fun. Yes, I've ran it before.