you decide: a speed bump or an obstacle

​It was my first ultra race - September 2018 - the 35-mile Georgia Jewel. I was halfway through. The heat had zapped me. I couldn't take another step.

I quit. I had hit an obstacle I just couldn't get around.

Only, a couple of hours later, I realized I'd hit a speed bump - not an obstacle. Speed bumps slow you down, make you pause and tread lightly as you go forward. Obstacles stop you. Seth Godin suggests the difference in the two is often what we decide they are.

I remember sitting in a tent after I'd quit. I was waiting for someone to take me back to the starting line. Franklin, one of the race directors, stopped by the tent. He said, rest up a bit, you've got all day - rest up and get back out there.

The reality is, by the time he said those words, I COULD HAVE gone back out there. I was rested. But in my mind, I'd already decided I'd hit an obstacle and not a speed bump. I didn't want to go back out there. In the moment, quitting sounded so much better than going.

I'm glad I have that haunting memory. Because it does STILL haunt me. Even after I went back and finally got that race done last year, quitting that 2018 race the way I did will always eat at me.

Knowing I could have kept going and didn't - knowing that I had a path forward in life that I turned my back on - well, you don't forget those opportunities so easily.

Some you never forget.

Some memories like that I think are supposed to haunt us. There are some memories that are planted in us as guides more than reflections. They are ugly and stinging reminders not to become our own worst enemies in our search for fulfillment.

Because when we start deciding speed bumps are really obstacles, we ARE our own worst enemies.

It's Monday. There is something in your life you want this week. You've decided - oh, it's mine. I'm going after it. Nothing is going to stop me.

Only, something WILL try to stop you. With anything worth having, something WILL step up and ask you, how bad do you want it?

And that something, it will be a speed bump or an obstacle. It will be "get out of my way" or "I'm done." The beauty is, more often than we think, we get to decide which it is.

I encourage you this week, when you get to those moments when it looks like it's all about to de-rail - stop - ask yourself - is this a speed bump or an obstacle.

And then you decide - it's a speed bump.

You decide - oh, it's mine.....