Look Up or Look Down?

I'm really glad I named this blog "My Fight To Write". It's a great reminder for me to always keep fighting, no matter what resistance or obstacles are in front of me. And so I do ~ I keep fighting to write.  

But I also have "My Fight To Run". Another thing that I know makes me feel good physically and mentally, but does not always happen as regularly as I'd like.

I probably push myself too hard, as I do with most things, so there are frequent times over any run that I have to will myself to keep up the pace and not give in to the desire to stop or slow down. 

Often when I'm struggling I find myself staring down at my feet. 

When I notice this I usually tell myself to look up ahead, not down, with the attitude that looking down is weak and negative. But today I got a new perspective on this.  

I pulled my eyes up and looked ahead to a yellow street sign a few hundred meters up the road. I locked onto to, trying to strengthen my resolve to push on. But the sign was so far away that it didn't seem to be getting any closer. My resolve started to weaken.

I looked back down at my feet and as I watched them pushing the ground away underneath me I felt like my pace was pretty good. I could see that even though the sign didn't seem to be getting closer very quickly I was doing well to hold this pace. 

So "looking down" doesn't have to be so negative. 

Let's not say looking "down" though. Let's say looking "closer to now" ~ to be properly M.C. (motivationally correct ~ as most motivators would encourage you to speak). 

Looking up is important. You need to dream. You need to set your sights on where you want to go. But it can leave you feeling like you're making no progress. When you look closer to now you can see that you are in fact moving towards your goal at a decent pace, even if it doesn't seem like it when you look at the goal itself, way off in the distance.

So next time you're feeling discouraged about your progress towards a goal off ahead, look  at what you're doing right now to get you to that goal, then keep pushing. Watch the ground move along underneath you. 

The only thing that will prevent you from reaching that goal is giving up and stopping.

I will add one disclaimer here though - sometimes you simply have to go a little easier on yourself. Don't stop moving of course! But just give yourself a little credit for how well you're doing and don't push yourself to the point of collapse. 

Because then you will stop! 

Better to be consistent but slower than inconsistently faster. You know - the hare and the tortoise story...