Life Lessons Thru Running
It’s tough being a dad. I never put much thought into it until I had kids. Looking back on it, I don’t think I’ve very good at it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and try to raise them the best I know how (my wife is the pro and keeps this ship from sinking). I’m not the wise elder and consider myself the cool, fun dad – it’s my personality. I’m not a great philosopher (in fact I hated philosphy – Descartes was simply insane) and I’m more of an irrational thinker. I have to work hard at keeping myself out of trouble by not thinking through my answers. Where conventional wisdom has failed me, running education has stepped in to bail me out.
On Sondays, when my son and I share some quality one-on-one time, I’ve tried to weave in some parental advice without lecturing. The easiest way of doing this is applying it to what we’ve doing – exercise. From what I’ve learned through running, I can know apply to my newly found wisdom.
Goals
Every young adult needs to know they can accomplish any goal if they set their mind to it. We live in a pretty hilly area. The downhills were no problem for my son on his bike. It was the uphills I would lose him on. While encouragement could coax him for a period of time, it was applied wisdom that seemed to do the trick. Instead of looking at the goal as this long distance we needed to travel, I broke it up into a bunch of much smaller goals that looked attainable without much effort. This is the same trick I think we all use in our running. Instead of looking at a marathon as the full 26.2 miles – you break it up into miles, 5Ks or halves. This tricks your mind into attaining smaller goals while whittling away the longer goal.
Fortitude
When your younger or under duress, the path of least resistance is a natural instinct. It’s not until you test yourself and battle through adversity until you can see what you’re really able to do. We’re back at the Home Hill and he’s almost to the 2nd to last goal. I try and remind him that if he can just keep pushing through to the next goal that it will get flat (that and the fact that I’m going to keep going). He struggles to the top and with a bead of sweat making it’s way down his cheek, he smiles. “That wasn’t too bad, dad.” “It never is,” I remind him. We all have mental walls we need to break down and until you take out the hammer and give it a couple of whacks, you’ll never know what’s on the other side.
While I may not be a scholarly individual, there still are some life lessons to be taught. It’s just the medium that needed to be tweaked. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge with others. It just might make the difference in somebody’s life.
RMFR
Tags: Fortitude, Goals, Parental Advice, Philosopher, Rene Descartes