We’ve all overcome obstacles in life and reached goals we never honestly thought we’d reach. But somehow, as we get older and spend years helping our kids have the courage to reach their goals….our courage can get lost. That girl who was willing to take a risk, work hard and possibly fail sort of fades into a woman who does what’s safe and predictable. Safe and predictable are fine sometimes. But not ALL the time!
I’m just as guilty of falling into this trap as anyone else. But last year, in the midst of cleaning scraped knees, making a million meals, grading papers and never reaching the end of my to-do list I took a challenge to make a goal that scared me. I knew immediately what it was because I’d been chickening out for 3 years. I wanted to run a Spartan race. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re races with a bunch of obstacles where you typically end up getting very dirty. I’m good with mud, but 8 foot walls, fire, barbed wire and rope climbing were pretty intimidating. And any obstacle you can’t finish earns you the privilege of 30 burpees. Despite that, on January 3rd my husband and I signed up for a Spartan Sprint in June…3-5 miles with 25ish obstacles. Gulp. Never mind that I couldn’t make it across the monkey bars anymore and I’d never climbed a wall or rope in my life. I could run and I’m good at burpees….I figured I’d survive. Maybe.
Fast forward 6 months…I’ve been that goofy mom on the monkey bars at every park we stopped at, gone to physical therapy to get some advice on building upper body strength without hurting my shoulders, watched a ton of Spartan videos for tips, done even more of their daily workouts, carried 50lb buckets around our property to get used to carrying heavy stuff a long way (there’s a bucket carry in the race) and connected with a local group of experienced racers for invaluable advice. And on June 24th we did it! On one of the muddiest courses the local group can remember. I needed a boost to get over the tallest walls and I burpeed 4 obstacles (I’m going to beat them next time!), but I got over those walls, aced the monkey bars and rings and had a BLAST!
I’m not sharing all of this to brag. It’s a challenge. What scares you? What have you pushed off for years because you couldn’t see every step so you gave up before you took the first one? What would happen if you dreamed, just a little, and tried? It’s possible…and even probable…that the girl who used to take a few risks to reach a goal is still in there somewhere. 🙂
PS I apparently cannot do monkey bars without my tongue sticking out. I think the Spartans should add THAT to one of their tip videos.
