As some of you will know, last year, I had a major health event (Vestibular Neuritis) in October, which stopped me in my tracks literally. Also earlier on last year I also had a knee issue called Chondrocalcinosis which also made an impact on my ability to keep up my fitness.
The reason I am sharing this is not to make this all about me, but to share the thoughts that I had when I did the Pegasus parkrun on Saturday, the first time for nearly a year.
I was a late start to running and hated it, and eventually began to enjoy it by applying positive mindset and thinking about the end result and the goal.
When Chondrocalcinosis was diagnosed, the only thing I wasn’t able to do was high impact sports which meant no more running. Because of this, I never returned to the Pegasus parkrun even although they encourage walkers! Why? Because I didn’t feel comfortable being amongst people that were running when I couldn’t. This is really silly, and without realising it, I had avoided it.
However, last Saturday, I decided I would ‘kill two birds with one stone’ and take my 7-month-old puppy on the Pegasus parkrun (walk) with me and did a power walk.
I was reminded as I walked round how many other people were also walking or part walking and running, and it wasn’t all about the running. This made me reflect on the perceived ‘race’ that we think we’re in, and the ‘lane’ that we assume we should be in and part of.
The important thing was that it also made me think that we need to embrace those changes whether it’s age-related, health-related or otherwise and feel comfortable in the new lane we’re in, and also look at the positives that we can draw from that.
Similarly, when I had my Vertigo events in October, I wasn’t able to do a lot of things in the early days. Whilst I could (only just) keep walking, one of the things I couldn’t do straightaway was cycling. Three months later, I was able to return to my bike. I was reminded that patience is a virtue!
One of the changes that I’ve had to make is being mindful not to overdo things. These might be things that I have typically done very comfortably in the past but not right now.
Whilst this will change I’m mindful of doing what is called Boom and Bust. Having a really busy energetic day doing things that I would have done normally before, only to suffer from fatigue the next day, along with tiredness and lack of energy.
This is what I want to focus on with today’s message. We all feel we’re up against runners when we’re not runners, or up against faster walkers when we’re not a walker. Or feel we should be in the fast cycle lane when we don’t even have a bike!
Sometimes we just try to do too much to prove things to others or ourselves, whether this is personally or professionally. We need to stop the boom and bust or prevent the boom and bust. We need to stop trying to prove something to ourselves and others and just feel comfortable in our lane, whichever and whatever that lane is.
The moral of this tale, and my story is what I took away when I walked around the park run on Saturday, and that was to embrace the changes, don’t overdo things, pace yourself, avoid boom and bust and try and improve, without overdoing it!
We are all in a different race personally, professionally, health-wise and in other things, but let’s be in a race against ourselves rather than somebody else. Almost like trying to achieve your personal best with everything. I hope some of these things that I’ve covered will provide some takeaways for you to look at and think about and reflect on where you are where you want to be, and apply positive mindset. Embracing the lane you’re in, not trying to be something or someone your not, doing the best you can without overdoing it or feeling you need to prove something to someone else. Be yourself and proud of who you are, what you are and where you are at.
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To find out more email Debs on: debs@successfactor.co.nz
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