Developing Strength

I was thinking about this on my run today on how I believe God took my physical strength away so that I had to develop more mental strength.

A while back I wrote down what will it take for me to reach my goal in my running jounrel and what I wrote was "strong-mind". I knew that in order to really get to the level I want to be at in running, I needed to ultimately develop the ultimate muscle & tool - the mind. I know this has been my weakness over the years.

Physically I can handle anything. I do not think my body even knows what pain is and that is why I am able to push when others would cry. I have birthed my babies naturally while smiling my way through it. I remember the nurses saying I could not be in transition because I was still smiling. That is just what I do smile. One of my regular gals that massages me, she is an Eastern European gal that likes to administer pain. I think she takes special pride in people squirming on the table. She is always baffled at me not feeling pain. There was a time when I was laying there drifting off to sleep while getting my massage and she says Jamie - do you feel that? Me - what? It feels good?? And she was No, Jamie, you muscles are twitching like they are in pain and you lay there sleeping and smiling.
Or the times when I have had runs that I should felt something like 20X400s or 2X6 miles hard or at the end of a marathon when people talk about it being painful. There many times that I should feel physical pain but yet it never registers to my mind or I have always had an ability to relax into pain/discomfort.

Now mentally, this is where I need to develop strength and I have know it for sometime. In the past, I have let little things in my head to distract me from my goal(s), I have let myself off the hook in races, and I have let my mind dwell where it should not go.

I truly believe if I can live up to this poem below my mind will be so strong that when the physical and mentally are combined that is when I have reached the point where amazing stuff can happen.

Thank you to my dear friend Kimberly for sharing this with many months ago :-) I re-read it all the time!

Promises to Yourself By Christian D. Larsen

Promise yourself…. 
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind;

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet;

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them;

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true;

To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best;

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own;

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future;

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile;

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others;

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear; and too happy to permit the presence of trouble;

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds;

To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.