Recently I had a strength session with my coach and she used the words, “You’ve graduated from the middle school level. You’re now advancing to high school level. But you’re not a senior yet. More like a freshman.” This comment hit with the feeing of running into a brick wall. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I felt discouraged from her comment. It was encouraging and exciting knowing that I am improving. However, it really hit me because I feel like it was the perfect description to how I have been feeling.
In my training I am definitely getting more fit and am able to run faster and longer. I am super excited about this! But, unfortunately my muscles and tendons aren’t able to keep up with my heart right now. What I mean by this is during most of my runs I am feeling great. My pace is getting faster and my effort level is staying low, specifically on easy runs, but my body at this time isn’t able to handle the demands I am putting it through. This is leaving me super frustrated and at times fearful. I am frustrated because I want to be closer to my goals and overall run faster because I like the feeling my body feels in space when I am running faster. And I am feeling fearful because I tend to get in my head and think negative thoughts such as, “I want to run a marathon one day, if I can’t even run this many miles how will I be able to do that.” Or “I want to get to as close to the elite level as I can and with how my body is responding it looks like it won’t be possible.”
I know I am not the only one who goes to the extreme when things aren’t working out the way you would hope. That’s why I want to talk about this subject today. The subject of embracing being a beginner. In today’s blog post I will be going through three lessons you can gain when diving head first into being a beginner. Let’s get into it.
- Patience
When you hear the word beginner does that excite you or bother you? If I am being honest, being a beginner is super tough for me. I like being the best or at least my best in whatever I am passionate about. This isn’t a bad quality, but I feel like it definitely has some down sides. To start, if you don’t start at the bottom and put in the work what good is going to come from that experience? The process would be super short and honestly not that fulfilling. I believe that some of the best things in life can come from hard work and the journey that took place before getting to the destination. And being a beginner lets you go through just that. It teaches you patience. Patience with yourself by learning new things, patience with time by waiting for a certain date to achieve your goal, and patience in the process of actually knowing if all of the hard work you’re putting in is going to pay off. Patience is a really hard quality to adhere, well at least for me. But what helps me is praying for the desire to learn while waiting and knowing that someday what I am going through will potentially help others. I heard at a conference recently that the more we focus on desiring to help others the easier it will be to either endure what we are going through or distract us from only being focused on ourselves. Next time you’re in a situation that is taking forever to go through, I encourage you to shift your focus off yourself and how your current situation can be of help to someone in the future.
- Humility
Humility is probably one of the biggest things I have had to learn so far on my eight month journey of running. I am not exactly sure of why that is, but I think it’s because I am already coming from an athletic background. And with having my background I expect and desire to be farther along than I actually am. But I have had to learn that’s not how things work. Especially something as intense as running. You can’t skip and rush through things such as going straight into high mileage weeks, running a fast pace for your easy runs, or starting out with lofty goals with not having a strong base. Examples of times over the last eight months that have been humbling for me are: blowing up in my first race, having to slow down my easy runs from flare ups popping up, and being super conservative with building my weekly mileage. Again, this has been super challenging for me because I already want to be at a level that I’m just not at yet. But I want to share what has helped me gain more humility, besides the life lessons and setbacks. What anchors me is remembering that at the end of the day it’s God working through me. It is Him who has allowed an opportunity to arise or has given me the ability to accomplish the task at hand. Sure, it is possible to accomplish great things without God. But I have learned that I don’t like to because it’s way more fun watching God show up in the impossible and then giving all of the glory to Him. My heart feels more at peace in these situations and I know that my situation will provide hope for others.
- Work Ethic
As I said above, some of the best things in life come from putting in the work. Being a beginner enforces hard work because you are starting out from no experience. Some of the hard work you put forth will be trial and error, discipline by learning new habits and skills, and developing faith by going through the process of the unknown. At times hard work can be scary because as humans a lot of the time we desire comfort. Plus hard work can be painful at times. But, in those moments of discomfort I try and remind myself that the work I am doing isn’t going to be wasted. It will make me stronger and more resistant to the next opportunity that comes my way. That could be on my running journey or it could be in a different area of my life. But without a shadow of doubt I already know that statement is filled with truth. I have already seen it happen in my life because many life lessons and work I put into training to be a Rockette is showing up on my running journey. Seeing this already happen in an eight month time period gives me hope in the moments that I question if my current hard work is even going to pay off in the future. If you’re going through something similar, find rest in knowing that your work will come to fruition. It may not be in the timeline you have or the ways you think, but it will come back and produce a harvest.
I hope these points can be of some encouragement to you. Being a beginner is a daily struggle for me, but I am trying to reframe my thoughts during this season. I look back at the times of accomplishing a goal and feeling bittersweet knowing that my time of working towards that goal has come to an end. I want to continue to tell you to embrace where you are in your life. Try not to rush the process of growing and evolving because you will never get this time back!
-Shara