I was thinking this weekend about my first marathon (yes, I’m sure you are all thinking John ran a marathon?) and yes, in fact I ran FIVE in my lifetime: the first at age 30. That first marathon took me 6 hours and 25 minutes to finish. For those of you who don’t know, they close the course and pick up the cones after 6 hours. My family was so scared they ran out the last half mile to find me and we ran to the finish line together. I was horribly embarrassed by the looks from the “real athletes” and the afterparty celebration was over. One kind worker was going to run off and get me the official medal for completing the event when I heard someone say “GET TWO”. I turned around and a 78 year old man was shuffling up behind us. He came up and hugged me, stating “because of you, I finished the race. I paced YOU the whole time.” So some very valuable lessons were learned that day:
1. Stop comparing your life/situation to others.
2. Inventory and be grateful for your own gifts and talents.
3. Figure out what brings YOU joy and happiness
4. Strengthen your skills, abilities and knowledge
THEN, do your best, every day, to run your own race and live your best life, as you have NO IDEA how that will positively impact others.
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