Running With Vision: MindsetSample

One Day at a Time

I’m a cold weather runner. I can’t stand running in the heat, especially in Oklahoma where it can be 90 degrees at 5:00am. However, in true 2020 fashion, this past year I trained for a marathon in the dead of summer for the first time ever (thanks to a postponement I’m sure many of you may have experienced in one way or another). Coming off training in the winter, I ran the best times I’ve ever had. I was on a high and on track to destroy the goal I’d set for myself for the marathon. Now, take two, I found myself struggling to breathe and make it through a 4-mile run when I’d just crushed my 20 miles two months prior. Adjusting is an understatement of what I was feeling. I was fighting gnats on a daily basis (I can’t even begin to count how many I swallowed and got in my eyes), breathing normally, staying hydrated, waking up even earlier to try and get some sort of relief from the heat, not to mention upset with the much slower times I was running. 

When trying something new, you can’t assume you’ll be great at it right from the beginning. As frustrating as this was, I had to start reminding myself to take it one day at a time. Be proud of what I had accomplished that day. I did it. I finished the run, even if it was much slower or harder than I was used to. I made it through, and because of that, I was stronger and could head into the next day with a stronger mental attitude because I’d finished what I’d started that day. 

Have you ever started something and become so frustrated with yourself that you stopped because you weren’t getting where you wanted to be fast enough? Or it was harder than you’d expected so you gave up? Maybe it was reading the Bible in a year. Maybe it was praying on a consistent basis or making a space to have quiet time with God every day. Whatever it is, don’t give up! Take it one day at a time and celebrate your accomplishment of the day. Maybe you spent five minutes in prayer instead of 15 like you’d hoped. That’s ok! Try for six minutes the next day. Or maybe for you, just talking to Him during the day could be a focus. Maybe you just ask, “God, give me wisdom” when you’re making a decision or thank Him for something that happened. I’m so grateful we have a God who is not legalistic about all the things. He just wants to spend time with you, and that can look different for every person. He loves your effort. Celebrate the accomplishment of the day, and head into tomorrow reminding yourself you can do it. One day at a time, you will grow in the areas you’re working on and before you know it, you’ll look back down the road and realize how far you’ve come.