Weekend Quote: Getting Started
June 6, 2009
Elaine sent me this quote a couple of weeks ago…
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." -Mark Twain
She thought it was a very good compliment to my question of the week regarding measurable objectives and I agree. I thought I’d be inspired to use it as the Weekend Quote when I ran the half marathon so I can discuss the correlation between training for that and losing weight. Both really did seem impossible for me to achieve when I started. I mean one was something I tried and failed at SO many times before I felt it defined me as a person and the other was something not even on my radar as being humanly possible until just a few months ago.
I find myself in a similar situation again. I’m feeling quite a bit stressed and looking ahead at my marathon training doesn’t help. I have a lot of things going on in my life and everything just seems so overwhelming right now.
I’m just having an off day. Skipping my workout this morning and pigging out today didn’t help either. *sigh* I need to take Mark Twain’s advice. Small manageable tasks. I’m focussing too much on the seemingly impossible and it’s just too overwhelming which is getting me down.
But you guys know me by now. I’m not letting these feeling get out of control. Tomorrow I shall run in my Anniversary 5k. The Bel Air Town Run was my very first race ever and I hope to make it a yearly tradition. The husband and the toddler will be joining me this time. While I try to beat my time from last year they will be enjoying the 1 mile run/walk. My little guy is ecstatic that he gets to wear his first bib number and I’m ecstatic that he’s ecstatic. :) I’ll be back tomorrow with pictures!
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On June 6th, 2009 at 7:29 pm Michelle said:
You’re right about not looking too far ahead. Just look at your training schedule as one day at a time. You don’t run 26 miles without training. And what was that quote? Marathons are just one mile run over and over again. Can’t wait to see the pictures. Good Luck!!!
On June 7th, 2009 at 12:55 am Elaine said:
Yay for you!! I, too, need to follow Twain’s advice. I’ve been not running for about 6 weeks now due to injury…but I’ve got 2 half-marathons this fall. I need to start small with just getting back on the running plan again…
On June 7th, 2009 at 9:52 am debby said:
I love that quote, Roni, and I love that it was from Mark Twain. He lived in my neck of the woods for quite a while, and there is a little shack where he lived and wrote for a while. And I always think, if Mark Twain could write great literature in that little box, there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish.
On June 7th, 2009 at 11:03 am Janice said:
Roni, This is so true and I just did this.
I decided to start running and I am using a plan I got from Prevention magazine. As I was looking at the 8 week plan on the calendar, I was getting overwhelmed with how full it was and that the rest day was the same every week (sometimes that does not fit my schedule). So I decided to put each workout on a notecard and numbered the note cards in order. So each day I go to the gym, I will pull out the next note card and do that workout. It is less overwhelming for me because I can do one at a time without getting discouraged or have to change my calendar is I miss a day. Also, I put little encouraging comments on each card to motivate me. I hope it will help me to stay on the training program.
I realize that this is a little time consuming but it was the only way I could break it down so it was managable. I start tomorrow!
On June 7th, 2009 at 7:27 pm BigTickles said:
Love the quote. Cannot wait for the pics.
On June 9th, 2009 at 8:32 am Karen in Tally said:
I love a similar quote from Meryl Streep - “start by starting”.