Running makes you an athlete in all areas of life...trained in the basics, prepared for whatever comes, ready to fill each hour and deal with the decisive moment.
George A. SheehanRead
The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.
Interpretation
Life's challenges are akin to running; we must strive to make the most of our circumstances.
This quote by George A. Sheehan emphasizes that both running and life present us with significant challenges that require us to maximize our efforts with the resources we have. It encourages individuals to focus on personal bests and to work diligently regardless of external limitations.
In practice
In a motivational speech for athletes focusing on personal growth.
Running makes you an athlete in all areas of life...trained in the basics, prepared for whatever comes, ready to fill each hour and deal with the decisive moment.
The distance runner is mysteriously reconciling the separations of body and mind, of pain and pleasure, of the conscious and the unconscious. He is repairing the rent, and healing the wound in his divided self. He has found a way to make the ordinary extraordinary; the commonplace unique; the everyday eternal.
No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences. My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others.
The more I run, the more I want to run, and the more I live a life conditioned and influenced and fashioned by my running. And the more I run, the more certain I am that I am heading for my real goal: to become the person I am.
The key then is to find your own mountain, otherwise you will be competing with people who are not even in your event, and running up against the 'shoulds' and 'oughts' of that world, and the inevitable frustration and depression and feelings of failure. A person can be complete or incomplete, but one thing is sure, he cannot be someone else.
There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.
When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.
Whenever there is a challenge, there is also an opportunity to face it, to demonstrate and develop our will and determination.
There's no way to convince people of your greatness. Whatever it is that you want to be, you have to know it inside and knife-fight your way to your dream.
If you are not ready today, you will be even less so tomorrow.
The direction of your focus is the direction your life will move. Let yourself move toward what is good, valuable, strong and true
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