Strength doesn't show up in you, you show up in strength

​I don't do as much running as I used to, but running taught me something that will always stay with me whether I'm a runner or not. And that is this: if I wait on the strength I need to finish a race to arrive, I will never finish it, so my best chance to finish is to just take a step with whatever strength I can find.

I was driving with Ian recently. He was telling me about an essay assignment he was working on. He said it was broken into five sections. I don't think I can write the whole thing tonight, he told me, but I think I can get two of the paragraphs done.

Ian's not even a runner and he gets it. The whole assignment can be hard to imagine. Hard to find the strength to complete. But he could imagine the strength to get two sections done that evening.

We can sometimes get to thinking strength is something that shows up out of the blue in our lives. It's not. Strength is actually built upon the strength WE ALREADY HAVE in our lives.

There was a time when I didn't have the strength to run a marathon. The strength to do that didn't show up out of the blue, it showed up in each step I took along the way to get there. Steps I took with strength I ALREADY HAD within me.

Nobody has the strength to quit drinking forever, but they already have within them the strength to not take a drink right now. If I think about the strength I'll need to quit drinking forever, I will never find that strength and I'll give up on the mission.

So I change the mission to finding the strength to take the next step.

If I think about finding the strength to make this relationship work forever, I will never find the strength to do that. But if I find the strength to navigate with love and repair what feels unloving today, I'll wake up one day and discover I had the strength to make something work forever.

I honestly don't know if I have the strength to live my best life, but I do know I have the strength to live my best morning. You find the strength to live enough best mornings and one day you wake up reflecting on a life full of strength you never imagined you'd have.

Trust me, I'm way stronger today than I ever imagined I'd be. And that's not because strength finally showed up, but because no matter what I kept showing up with strength.

You all have so much strength in you. Sometimes you forget that while your waiting for and wishing for strength you don't have yet. Well the world doesn't deliver you strength; you deliver strength to the world.

Stop waiting for strength to arrive and start delivering on the strength you already have. The finish line isn't coming for you, but that doesn't mean for a second you can't cross it.

So go cross it. I believe in you.