Life Lessons From Running and Completing A Marathon
Date: January 19, 2010 at 5:54am
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| Dr. Sumit Dutta Chowdhury |
I finished my first full marathon in Mumbai this weekend. It took me 45 minutes more than I had planned. While I was running the distance for the first time, I contemplated on how the whole experience of preparing and running the Marathon, has so many parallels to living life and the lessons that can be learnt in the process. I learnt how spiritual this experience can be and how it builds character. I am taking the liberty to pen down my thoughts that are fresh from the long hours spent on the hot concrete road yesterday.
Life is like a Marathon because:
1) Anyone can run the Marathon: Marathon is a race that mimics life and just like everyone has equal opportunity to live a life, anyone can run a marathon – young and old, woman and man, elite athlete and novice beginner, thin or fat person. Running a marathon is a unique experience. It is the only sports competition that I am aware of where a beginner can rub shoulders with and compete with the elite athletes of the world.
2) You have to set long-terms goals in life: It is almost impossible to start running and run a Marathon- even if you are super fit. Once you have decided to run, you have to set a goal. It could be a very simple goal of just finishing or finishing within a certain time. Winning does not matter. Anyone who crosses the finish line is a winner. More seasoned runners can set other goals. Each person has their own goal and almost no two goals are identical. This is very similar to your personal goals in life. They are your own and they are set independent of what the goals are for other people. You can get some benchmark from people who are your age or your education or your community. There will be no one who will encourage you nor will anyone make you do anything. You will have to do it yourself. Similarly in life, or at work, one has to set ones goals for achievement and excellence. It cannot be set by anyone else. It is very easy to give up on goals that are set by yourself. Once you build the determination in life to achieve goals that you set for yourself, life becomes a piece of cake – so will running a marathon or running will help you build this determination to go after goals that you set for yourself.
3) You have to practice to move towards your goals: There is nothing that can be achieved by just setting goals. You have to practice and practice with determination – with a view of the end result. Each practice should lead you a little closer to your goals. Week after week, month after month, with the training and guidance you build up your miles. Doing the same thing every day does not move you closer to your goal. You have to have the wish to improve in each practice. Repetition with the desire to improve. In life or at work too you have to do the same. Each time you do your job, you have to have the desire to do it better. This awareness will take you a long way.
4) Most of the time you are running and competing against yourself and time: In a marathon, unless you are a World Record holder or a medal hopeful (You will not be reading this blog in that case) everyone else is running for their own goals. You start the race with thousands of people and slowly as you race forward, many drop out. Finally you find a set of people who will share the journey with you. The people who were your co-runners in the first 10 kms are probably not the ones that remain with you in the last 10kms. In life, you will also find the similar situation where your colleagues will be different as you progress through life. People will come and go. This has a very important life lesson – you cannot compare yourself or compete against one person all the time. You have to set your own goals and they may probably is higher or better than people who you traditionally compare against.
5) There are times in life when you have to work hard to change the orbit you play in: There are various types of Marathons and you can set your goals in each category and completely conquer that field or you can choose to run harder/faster/longer and change the type of race you are running. From Dream Run of 6km to Half Marathon. From Half Marathon to Full Marathon, from Full Marathon to Ultra Marathon (Ultra Marathons are 50+ races and can go to beyond 250kms). You can set goals within category or decide to change categories. These are all personal goals that you set and there is no one who will force you to change. The effort require to change the orbit is not trivial and you will soon realize that lots of lessons are learnt only by having the desire and the giving required effort to change ones orbit. These lessons are NOT learnt in each orbit, they are learnt in the process of change.
6) You have to face several challenges: These will test your endurance and determination to succeed. You have mile markers along the way that will set your interim goals. These are very important to keep reminding you about your achievement and the ultimate destination. In life, you need short term goals to meet your long term goals. Each goal can be a test and a challenge and overcoming these leads you to reach your final destination. Sometimes the long term goals seems too far away so these short term goals helps you keep going. Don’t stop and get disheartened. Sometimes we have a tremendous urge to quit, to give up, to throw in the towel. Having the ability to overcome those urges and keep going makes all the difference in life.
7) You need a coach and/or an inspiration: In your path to enlightenment, you need a guru to pull you through the last few rungs of the ladder. Your coach will show you the way, encourage you, push you and finally motivate you. There has to be an internal desire to get a coach in life. You need people to cheer you on. Life is not interesting if you silently keep achieving your goals and no one is there to cheer you. You also need people you will try to emulate or be inspired by.
According to Jim Brennan - The most important advantage of running a marathon is developing and possessing a runner's mentality. Runners enjoy indisputable benefits such as good health, discipline, and perseverance, but I believe the acquisition of a runner's mentality trumps all. The benefits of running emanate from this mentality. It is a mentality that you don't wake up one morning and decide to adopt; it's earned after years and kilometers of running in the heat, humidity, rain, and other countless oppressive conditions.
But foremost, running keep stress under control and enables you to confront life's toughest challenges with relative calm and even clairvoyance. Reducing stress is the predominant benefit because stress kills. So persist and take refuge in a runner's mentality. Life will give a lot back to you.
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