What Will You Focus On?

When I was training for Ironman Wisconsin with Team Katie, I remember a very specific conversation with a fellow runner. They mentioned that running was such a personal experience for them. It was an opportunity for them to get out of their own head and it was their time.

They wanted to understand how I would be willing to give that up. Not in a judgmental way but in a curious way. 

Here's the thing, when training with Team Katie and training for the event by myself, I never really thought of it as me giving up something, I saw it as a me gaining something. 

I saw it as me being able to spend hours with two amazing friends.

I saw it as a way to do something amazing and extraordinary.

I saw it as a way to enjoy one of the toughest experiences of my life.

I never saw it as me giving up something.

I can't help think about that in relation to everything that is going on today. 

BuzzFeed has a whole section titled "The Lost Year".

There are so many posts with people focusing on the bad things that are happening. Talking about how sad, depressed and miserable this year is.

I see so many people out there, that talk about how COVID has ruined their plans. 

Races have been cancelled, trips have been rescheduled, birthday's not celebrated,  people not being able to see one another and so much more.

I admit it, it gets to me. I am not denying that things are different but that does not mean things have to be bad. That does not mean that we need to focus constantly on the negative.

It's not just about being happy, it is about developing a mindset that will help you succeed. 

A mindset that will help you deal with the obstacles that come your way.

We need to make the conscious choice to focus on the positive, to find the good and to understand that just because things are different does not mean they are bad.

We need to stop playing the victim to the world and start to become our own hero.

We need to realize that life is not happening to us, life is happening for us.

We always have two choices.

We can choose to be on defense and react to everything that comes our way, trying to stop things from happening

Or

We can choose to be on offense and focus on the positive, focus on moving the ball down the field.

I am not saying we deny our emotions but rather we go all in on them. That we accept them, deal with them and move forward. 

That we realize we always have a choice and the choice we make will be the biggest factor in where we go in life.

So my question to you is, what will you focus on?