This I Believe

Great little ditty I read on Monday - and a terrific start to my week, I must say!  The following was posted on the Run Junkees Facebook page (if you haven't "Liked" them, I highly recommend it - great inspirational posts every day, from all sorts of perspectives!):

Met a fellow runner named Chet over the weekend. He was an old school marathoner, completing his first in 1987. He shared a story which inspired this pic.

While running a marathon Chet happened along side a fellow runner who was best described as short and stout. Chet engaged the runner in a brief conversation and said "How's it going?" The runner confidently said "Great! I'm running at world record pace". Chet inquisitively replied "World record pace, huh?" The runner answered "Yep. My world. My record. My pace."  

This REALLY got me thinking, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. What a great way to summarize my own view of what I'm working toward!  MY world.  MY record.  MY pace.
I love it so much I'll quote it again.

MY world. MY record. MY pace.

I put such stock in Ownership of this journey.  I am Responsible for what I eat, what I do with my body.  I'm a huge believer in Choice.  It's maybe the core belief I really hold true in my life.  I'm not a particularly spiritual or religious person, but I believe that in life and love, in so many things, You ARE the CHOICES You Make.  That may be why I love love love the quote attributed to Aristotle: "You are what you repeatedly do."

Photo credit:   bridget_willard  via photopinhttp://www.photopin.com cc

Every day, I wake up and choose to be with my life partner, I choose to care for him and for myself, and for our son.  I choose to go to work with a positive attitude.  I choose to exercise (or not to).  I choose to work through problems (be they at work or at home or in my own crazy mixed-up mind) with an aim for SOLUTION, rather than spend my time and energy on simple complaints about "the way things are."  These things are my responsibility.  No one else is responsible for my actions.  I own them.  I choose. 

Me. 

I. 

Choose.

I could literally spend the entire day ranting and raving on this subject.  It's just that important to me.

It's also why I have a tendency to kick myself so hard when I screw up.  Screwing up is not something that happened to me.  It's something I did to myself.  I LET it happen (whatever it was).  I got distracted and lost sight of my goal.  I allowed myself to ___________.  I chose to eat a pint of ice cream.  I chose not to workout for a week (or a month, whatever).  I chose to walk instead of run.  I chose to eat fast-food breakfast every other morning and told myself I "didn't have time" to make something healthy before work. 

Yes, I make terrible choices now and then.  Sometimes I make terrible, unhealthy choices every day for months!  And sometimes, I make wonderful, healthy, life-affirming choices on a daily basis, with the occasional unhealthy choice mixed in for balance.

I'm learning to be gentler with myself when I screw up.  (Translation:  I am choosing to accept small failures and move forward, rather than choosing to dwell on them and allowing those small failures to accelerate and spiral into larger ones.)

So the way I see it, everything in life comes down to the choices I make every day.  Yes, some things are beyond my control.  Certainly!  We don't choose to have a sick family member or a death in the family.  I did not  choose to get laid off from a job I loved, where I got to work with people I really care about.  But we do choose how to respond to those major and minor tragedies.  (Of course nothing ever feels so minor at the time!)

We choose how to live.  How to go on. 

Will we breed bitterness, anger, sadness? 

Or will we breed joy?  Love?  Excitement? 

A sense of adventure? 

Inspiration?

What are you choosing today?

Photo credit:  Photo Extremist via Photopin cc