While reading through my favourite 21 Life Lesson stories, this particular one resonated deeply with me. At the time I was experiencing overwhelming adversity and it felt like any step forward I made, I wouldn't only take two back, I would stub my toe as well, adding insult to injury.
We all experience times when we feel particularly worn down by things, whether they be personal circumstances, external events that bleed onto us, internal turmoil that presents in various ways through our one shared characteristic - being human which presents a whole range of physical, emotional and mental limitations.
Prof de Villiers wrote about his first experience training for, undertaking and completing his first marathon. The fact that the start of it seemed exhilirating, easy even. He was pumped up and his ego convinced him that he was untouchable. The middle of the marathon was more difficult as fatigue set in and his frailty - the fact that he isn't indestructible set in and made him doubt whether he would could in fact make it to the finish line. This is known in the running world as "the wall" - what a great description for it.
Then the last stretch seemed to conjure up that little voice that tried to convince him that "the wall" was just too high, too strong and he hadn't trained enough... but he had trained for this.
So he put his training into use. He took a break, drank some water, had a snack for some energy and to shift gears in his mind and then he focused on simply takiing the next step - not the next km. He kept on plodding and eventually he crossed the finish line - sore and exhausted, but exhilirated and motivated.
While he draws the analogy that life is a marathon, not a sprint, I feel that one of his mentor's quotes is far more powerful (and humourous).
Isn't that the truth! In essence, even when we are in the deepest, darkest pits of despair, there is surely the alternative which I believe - is worse.
Personally this story is a reminder of my own struggle through a year of extreme hardships, emotional challenges, physical issues and limitations which made me miserable, circumstances that needed to change, situations that were plagued with uncertainty, fear and doubt about my capabilities to overcome what felt like an overwhelming mountain of adversity and ten million challenging tasks in front of me.
In retrospect, it wasn't me that did it alone. It was me and my network of friends, family and even acquaintances that all recognised the hardships in what I was facing and each of them helped in their own ways to help me overcome the obstacles.
I would like to believe that no human is an island and when we need our people, that we can reach out to them and know that they are there. This is a quality that I believe I have and that I hope everyone possesses - steadfastness to be there in ernest when someone needs us.
So while I think Prof de Villiers is spot on and that life is a marathon, I believe that we need the supporters and the cheerleaders standing alongside with the placards, the vendors at the water stations that clap and give us high fives along the way. And we too, as runners in this marathon need to band together and acknowledge when a fellow runner goes down after hitting "the wall" and offer them a hand up and a word of encouragement to keep going - one step at a time.
To everyone that is having a hard time at the moment, please believe that these challenges will get better - reach out and let people know that you are having a shit time, they will no doubt want to help, even if all they can offer is an opportunity to listen, that alone is sometimes enough to lighten the load when carried by four shoulders instead of two.
We're all in this together guys - let's run a good race!
If you would like to buy the e-book version of 21 Life Lessons @ 21, it is available online at www.21lifelessons.co.za for $12 USD (International), 15 Hive (International) or R150 ZAR (South Africa).
Be awesome today.
This is a bi-monthly publication. This is the third edition.
You can find edition 1 here & edition 2 here.
All artwork has been used with permission from the book publisher
