I walked a marathon and thought I'd be fit forever.
Silver bullets and magical thinking instead of making decisions.
In 2000 I made the decision to walk the Dublin Marathon with my Aunt. I’s always wanted to go there, we would train in our separate countries, raise some money for charity and meet up in Dublin for the craic (Irish for fun).
For months I built up my walking distances shrinking the area around me while I searched for 12 mile walks. I’d never committed to a training schedule like that and I couldn’t believe how fit I got!
And I finished that marathon. In the rain and cold. 7 hrs and 21 minutes and only peeing once. Brilliant! I did it! Life changing.
Imagine my disappointment in 2002, no longer training, when I was no longer that fit. WTF?
I tell this story often and it always gets a laugh. But I got really interested in where that thought even came from and started to recognise it from quite a few places. A part of my brain literally thought that if I finished a marathon I’d be fit forever. It was just a really funny example of the magical thinking that one event, one moment, one perfect wedding, one Instagram post about your business… will be the silver bullet that can change everything.
And what sucks is those things are true, some moments do change everything, but they aren’t passive things. If you spend your life waiting for the moment it’s not very likely to happen. It wasn’t walking the marathon that made me fit, it was the months of training leading up to it.
Permission is like fitness. You just got to keep doing it if you want the outcome. (I obviously wasn’t too attached to the fitness ones, but by god I want my dreams to come true).
So keep making decisions to put yourself in the path of your dreams.
Susie
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