Your Future is Bigger Than Your Past!
I was listening to a podcast this morning and maybe I’ve probably only listened to this one once before, but something John Maxwell said stuck with me. He said “Always make your future bigger than your past.” He was referring to life, and I think about this often. “Where is our world headed?” I wonder, “Are we headed towards doomsday?” Maybe it’s a spiritual thing, but when we believe there is more good ahead of us, life has more meaning. I also see this with our running. Something I hear from athletes I work with that are in their 40’s and 50’s is that, “Well, I won’t hit my PR anymore, so what’s the point.” They might say, “I can’t train like I used to so I am struggling to find meaning with my running.” I really like to challenge people when they say, “I’m just too old to run.”
In college I would hear from my coach and others that this would be some of the best times of my life. I really disliked this statement. At the time college and competing at a high level felt pretty stressful. I had a ton of fun, but I also was stressed about running fast enough to keep my scholarship, running to my own expectations, keeping up my grades, and navigating life as a cereal monogamist. That last part is slightly sarcastic, but I did go from one relationship to another with rarely any time single in between. But the point is that other people were telling me that this was going to be the pinnacle of life and I was 20 years old. Rarely did I hear that these times are building blocks for life, and that these experience would help me for years to come. It was a scary thought that this could be the best part of life, and so I decided to not to listen and ignore it.
There were times since college when I would look back and think, “Man, I wish I would’ve enjoyed that a bit more and slowed down a little.” It was only 4-5 years of my life, but when I was competing at UT it was all I could think about. It was forever for me. There have been some low times where I wondered, “maybe that was the best part of life.” When I get out of that funk though I realize what John Maxwell is saying and it rings true to me.
“A bigger future is essential for lifetime growth. The past is useful because it is rich with experiences that are worth thinking about in new ways, and all these valuable experiences can become raw material for creating an even bigger future. “
We have to believe that our future is good and exciting and that it is bigger than our past. We can use our past to help us improve and that is true with life just as it is with our running. Its all about how we can use each experience as an opportunity. If we can see difficult times as a challenge and not a failure or as a catastrophic experience we are better able to move forward.
John also said that “Successful people understand that they are responsible for now and unsuccessful people want to talk about yesterday.” So no matter where you are in your running journey, whether you’re just starting out, running your first ultra, or 68 years old and finding new ways to challenge yourself, you are responsible for now. Yes, our history, past experiences, or past races have either helped us or caused us strife, but what we can do today is take responsibility for where each of us is. Use the past to help improve your future!
So I encourage you to take charge of your current experience no matter what challenges there may be. Put in the work to create a great future or a great running experience for yourself. No matter what the odds look like, you are capable my friends!