By HPRS Staff Columnist Jacob Stevens
As I sit in silent contemplation and reflect on the situation, I am upset. I am disappointed, I am angry, and I am hurt. What’s done is done and the options in front of me are fairly black and white. I can sit here, feeling sorry for myself and complain and cry about how this happened to me; or I can lift myself up, hold my head high, put one foot in front of the other and continue to move forward. The decision I make at this very moment will change my future, for better or worse; so I sit, I contemplate, I lift my head, and I take that first step.
The previous paragraph describes two distinctly different situations I recently faced but the emotions, the psychology, and the choices were the exact same. In my professional career I recently found myself in a situation where I was taken advantage of, not told the truth, and an agreed upon financial arrangement broken. I was devastated, angry, hurt, and disappointed. Not long before this, at a 100 mile mountain race, I was unknowingly sent off course by a volunteer…2.5 miles down a mountain, which means I had to go 2.5 miles BACK UP a mountain to get back on course. I was devastated, angry, hurt, and disappointed; however, I handled these two situations in the exact same manner: I lifted my head up, I refused to feel sorry for myself, and I put one foot in front of the other.
Running has taught me that the key to any endeavor, and for that matter life, is consistency and connection. We are going to face adversity and we are going to face challenges, it’s how we handle that adversity that makes us who we are and determines what direction our life will head. Challenge and adversity provide the perfect environment for us to grow and become better people but so many times we allow setbacks to damage us. Setbacks tend to provide an environment which allows us to disconnect from ourselves, to slow us down and to change us from what made us successful.
Consistency and connection; connection to ourselves, connection to those around us, and connection to our environment are what allow us to take risks and find success; so often when we encounter a setback or adversity we become conservative and stray from what got us to a place of happiness and success in the first place. The key is to be able to find opportunity in situations that we find challenging and like anything else the more we practice this the better we are at it. Here at HPRS we provide an opportunity to willingly face adversity, to “challenge by choice.”
This can be as simple as running a new distance you haven’t run before, taking on an ultramarathon at 9,500 feet above sea level, or even volunteering your time at an aid station to be a part of someone else’s journey (sometimes this can be the most challenging but oftentimes the most rewarding). The level of challenge is completely up to you but to willingly place ourselves in situations that challenge us is how we grow and how we learn to handle difficult situations. When we challenge ourselves and test our limits willingly we learn things about ourselves that allow us to handle situations that we don’t willingly put ourselves into.
One of the greatest qualities of running is that through consistency and connection we become better human beings and we learn how to influence those around us in a positive manner. The exact nature of a difficult situation is almost irrelevant, it could be facing a DNF, going off course during a race, a relationship, not getting that promotion at work, or making a big financial decision…the emotions are all the same. How we deal with these difficult situations are what will make us who we are. If you are dealing with a difficult situation or decision, I implore you to hit the trails or volunteer at a race, connect with nature as well as others, and continue to put one foot in front of the other because no matter what life throws at you, the lessons you learn on the trail will provide you with the experience and the maturity to keep moving forward because you are worth it and you, just as you are, are enough!