Don't Be Afraid: This Is What You Were Born To Do.

Sometimes I stumble upon something inspiring and it's too good to keep to myself. Recently Kara Goucher was on the cover of "The Competitor Magazine" On it she was wearing a necklace I didn't notice until I read about it on her blog. On the the front it says "I am not afraid" 

On the back it say "This is what you were born to do"

On a personal note I could write a whole blog on why I respect idolize Kara Goucher and Paula Radcliffe. They took time out of what I believe to be one of the most fragile and passion filled careers to have children and how I think it's really cool that Paula has an anti G treadmill in her daughters playroom. I would only ever say anything negative about that if I was jealous, like in the event I asked my husband to build me, I mean our future daughter an elaborate playhouse big enough to house my treadmill and maybe a trampoline and some other fun stuff and he told me to get real. I'll stop there because that whole subject pertains to the place I am in and what I read applies to a whole lot of people I know in various arenas.

From Kara's Blog

"I believe that life should be about living your passions—doing what you were born to do. But chasing your dreams is hard. No matter who you are or what your passion is, trying to do something as well as you can possibly do it is challenging, and with challenges comes fear.

As a runner, I deal with fear almost daily. To prevent fear from defeating me, I have to fight back against it in my mind. Reminding myself that I am doing what I was born to do—that, win or lose, embracing the challenge is still worthwhile—is one way I do that."

For what it's worth I have plenty of friends who are very successful, mostly in sport but some in other areas. They work extremely hard and organize their lives so when their passion is put to the test they can execute to their potential. Along the way, when they do the work they often are knocked for their efforts. They really are victimized by the "haters" for their success.

Sidebar: By the way, these friends of mine are not braggers. They never tout their times, finishing results, or training regimes. They may share information but they don't do things like wave their hardware around and say "Ooh don't you what this" There are those people, I'll leave them out as they don't fall into my category of "inspiring".

If they train hard and execute well, people say they are selfish because they spent time training. When they train hard and their execution comes up short they are assumed to be ungrateful and selfish. For example:  When the person who has raced 5 half marathons at 1h 32 minutes races a 1h 35 minutes s/he expresses disappointment because they trained for a 1h 29 minute finish.  With a 1/2 marathon PR of  1:40 it's really easy for me to be jealous and say they should be happy. I could start slamming their lifestyle choices right and left. I could forget to acknowledge the personal sacrifices they made, their organization and prioritization, and their willingness to dig deep through pain and to take chances. I try not to sink to that level as it is unfair and in the end it will only ever promote me to be less than I can be. I admit I have had moments where I sink, sank, sunk to this level, a  private pity party for me. For the most part I don't. Objectively seeing some of my friends go through this I am going to try even harder to refrain from making snide remarks to others that are fueled by my own jealousy.

 I realize it's all relative, on some level I have my own fan club of "haters" jumping up and down at the thought of me failing and well to err is human. I am blond. I smile, I laugh, and yes sometimes it is because I don't know what is going on. However, there are moments in conversation, when I too have been slammed sideways and I knew exactly what was going on.  For Example  "It's good you had a good race at Ironman Arizona because you will never go that fast again. You really went faster than you were capable". I didn't disagree because I believed in what was said it was because I was aware of where the comment came from. I think that why the haters get away with those comments, they are unaware anybody has them figured out.

So to all those who inspire me ... I know you have "haters" who are trying really hard to plant  the seed of doubt. I selfishly ask of you to never give up, to keep living your passion, and keep chasing your dreams. 

And when race day comes I encourage you to go as fast as you can and ....

 "Don't Be Afraid:This Is What You Were Born To Do.