Run Your Own Race

Run-your-own-race

Run Your Race

Life is a bit of a marathon.  We are constantly adjusting, dodging, trying to understand, solving problems for ourselves and others, on and on.  As we work our way through these challenges, it is easy to get side-tracked, thinking I should be more like this or that.  But each of us has a unique perspective, our DNA fingerprint to leave on this earth.  Yours is like no other; there is no duplication or similarity to another; it is yours to go and make a difference.

Think of it as clouds moving in the sky.  They are constantly in motion, bumping into other clouds, making changes, merging, and flexible.  So it is with us; we are always in constant calibration.  You are never there; you never reach the state where you can say, ‘OK, now I can just cruise everything is perfect.’  There isn’t any such state because we’re constantly interacting with others, and we need to stay flexible to help them understand, to be willing to merge ideas and come up with something new.  We need to be ready to take a different path to get to where we want to be if needed.

You don’t hear the clouds saying, “Hey, get out of my way!”  or “I don’t want to merge with you.”  They bump into each other, overlap at times, and continue on their way.  So it is with us; we are always trying to adjust our focus, adjusting our course–but keeping our focus on the main thing.  Stephen R. Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says, “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”  I worked for a superintendent of schools who used to say that a lot.

I like that because it reminds me that despite distractions, side-tracks, changes, arguments, disagreements, and anything else that can lead us astray, we’re headed to our goal, to the main thing.

I want to encourage you today to run your race.  Acknowledge the distractions as necessary, but don’t give them any more attention than they deserve, which may well be no attention at all.  As you work with this concept, think about the clouds, how flexible they are, and how they are constantly adjusting.  Do that for yourself, but keep moving toward your goal while running your race.

I have thought quite a lot about balance.  You hear people say it all the time, read this post for an answer to this age-old struggle, Living in Balance – Dr. Rich Patterson (pattersonphd.com)

Center Stone website has an excellent post on How to Get Your Life Back Into Balance, How To Get Your Life Back Into Balance – Centerstone

Yours for Better Parenting,

–Rich