Life is a Marathon

Today, thousands of people will join 1% of the world’s population in completing the full 26.6 mile Los Angeles Marathon, including about twenty students from my high school. Many of them keep a pace that sustains them for the entire race. A few, who have not done enough training, cannot finish the race because they thought it would be like a sprint. In life pursuits, many people begin to pursue their goals and dreams as if they are sprints and become disappointed when they don’t reach fruition. We must pursue our passions in life like a marathon and not a sprint.

You have to train for a marathon and the training takes time. The students at my school are at the school every day from September to the Friday before the marathon, which is in March, at 5:00 AM. They run in several races, and with each race they run a greater distance so they can be ready to endure the 26.2 miles in the Los Angeles full Marathon. Whatever we attempt to build in any endeavor in life, we must train as if it is a Marathon and not a sprint. Unfortunately, many in society are training for sprints and their influence hinders our race.

Last week at a writer’s conference, I was reminded that it takes time to get a book published. It is a marathon. Any great piece of art has taken time to create and although most of us want to create it like a sprint, it takes a marathon to be crafted. Art and sports are not the only endeavors that require marathons over sprints. Emotional life choices are also marathons.

Letting go of past hurts takes time. We don’t just wake up one day and decide that it is out of our lives. With time, our hearts and souls begin to heal, and our souls begin to heal with each day at a time, or each hour, or each minute or each moment. With that time, we do what it takes emotionally to let go such as counselling, reading, journaling, praying, or whatever it is that heals our souls. Although it takes time, it really takes letting go. If we do not let go, then there is no point if wondering why time does not heal. Time only heals when we begin to take the steps to begin the healing, and that time is long like a marathon.

Persistence works with time. Doing anything worthwhile in life takes persistence. Success is not achieved overnight. It does occur as we continue to persevere through the difficult times and the rejections. Through time we discover how to become better at what we are trying to achieve. Through time, we find community and those who can work with us and guide us along the way. Without taking the time like a marathon, we fizzle out and begin resisting instead of persisting.

The cliché, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” holds true. It takes large amounts of time to build anything that is worthy to create or build for others. In our world of modern technology, we want everything within an instant. We want our coffee in an instant, so we order it online. We want our food in an instant, so we put it in a microwave. We are able to communicate instantaneously. Our technology has helped us and hindered us, especially with the understanding that building a life that is worthy will never be instantaneous. It will take years to build, just like Rome.

We look at those who are successful and think that they became successful overnight. There is no overnight success. That is a lie. One celebrity said that she became famous overnight, only if you consider twelve years in the industry overnight.

We must remember that we are in control of our time. How we manage our time says more about our character than what we say we will do or what we want to do. Understanding that we must manage our time and use it wisely is part of the process. We must also understand that the best things in life come when we take the time to create. Life is a marathon. There are people running today that will make it across the finish line in less than three hours. The main group of people will finish in six to eight hours. There are the few in the back of the pack that will finish in eight to twelve hours, but they finished. They took the time to run an entire marathon. It’s not easy. It’s not quick, but the result is worth it. May we all approach our passions in life like a marathon and not a sprint.