Persistence, Perserverence, and Personal Demons

Day 2 and Beyond

Each morning I try to get up early to workout. Considering that I've gone about 6 years without a workout, this IS quite a challenge. I hit snooze(my wife just loves this) and hope that I can muster the motivation to get out of bed. Once my feet hit the floor, my brain fills with excuses as to why I shouldn't be doing this(the demons). I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it. When I reach my goals, I will feel alot better about this. I hope to run in the 5K run here on Labor Day Weekend. I'll let you know.

Out of bed and downstairs to stretch and do some calesthentics before starting on my run. I have to keep pushing myself, the pain isn't that bad, I can work through it. 20 situps, 30 leg raises, 30 crunches, 20 pushups. All in all, about 20 minutes of excersise then I'm off for a run. My route right now is about 1.6 miles and my goal is to run more and more and not stop to walk at all. When I can do that, I'll add more until I am running about 4 or 5 miles.

Before I take my first step, I can hear them, the demons. Telling me that I hurt too much. Or I'm too tired. Or it's too far. Or I just don't feel good. I have to ignore them and continue to make deals with myself. I just go to the next telephone pole and I'll see how I feel. I'll go to the next house and see how I feel. I have to get at least halfway then I'll see how I feel. Now I made it halfway, I need to go a bit further. With every deal, the demons are telling me that I gotta stop, You're gonna kill yourself. I don't listen. Instead, I just make another deal. With each deal, I've made an accomplishment. I gotta keep going. By the end of the first week, I'm not stopping at all.

I know that I'm not alone out there. There are probably many of you who are fighting your own personal demons. I know that everyone must deal with them in their own way. I just told you mine, you can use that, or take a variation of that and keep up the fight. It goes on in me every day. I do my best to not give in and in the end, I see the progress and knowing that keeps me motivated.