It's Monday. The start of another week. The start of another round of you and me deciding: will we make a way this week, or will we make excuses?
I spent a little time watching the Olympics over the weekend. It's easy to be awed by these young men and women. Watching them compete as and with some of the most accomplished athletes in the world, it's easy to be lured into believing you are watching the larger than life, the supernatural. But you are not. What you are really watching are people who have decided what is important to them. They have decided it is important enough for them to find a way to do it, and not a bunch of excuses why they can't. You are watching people who appear to be larger than life because they've spent a larger amount of their lives saying yes to a way, and hell no to excuses. I also spent some time on the trails this weekend with my friends Celia and Meg who are attempting to run the entire Appalachian Trail. My friend Celia was battling stomach issues. Yet, here she was, 4 days and 120 miles into their recent segment, it was hot and she was feeling awful, and all she was talking about was finding a way. Finding a way to keep going. Finding a way for her to be larger than her life as she's known it. She had the perfect excuse in front of her, but she said no to the excuse and yes to finding a way. The more I watch the Olympics - the more I hang out with Celia and Meg - the less I am awed by THEIR superpowers and the more I begin questioning why I so infrequently tap into MY OWN. Because the only thing separating all of them from me is the number of excuses I buy into. When I'm finding a way to say I can't today, they'll be finding a way to say whatever it takes. Sometimes it's not good for us to watch the Olympics or hang out with friends running the unimaginable run. Because we can walk away from them making THEM our newest excuse. -They have some special gift I don't have. -They have more time, money and resources. -They have a better support system. No - I'm sorry, that is not what they have that you and I don't have. What they have is total clarity about what is important to them. And if you ever try to give them an excuse why they can't pull off what is important to them, they'll tell you what to do with that excuse. Maybe we should think about that a little this week. Whatever it is we're thinking is important to us - there's a good way of measuring just HOW important it is. Are we making a way for that important thing to get done in our lives? Or are we making excuses why it can't? Maybe this week we can all think a little more about what is really important. Maybe it will help us spend a little more time making a way.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
May 2024
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