Honor the Work of your Younger Self
I accidentally ran a 5K this year, for the first time ever.
I say “accidentally,” because I just started running one day, and thanks to feeling the overwhelming need to cling to any form of routine I could in 2020, I just forgot to stop. I forgot to stop at the point I had been telling myself for years was my max capacity. Isn’t it funny when that happens?
I’ve always wanted to be a person who runs 5Ks. It seemed like a secret, fun club full of social opportunities and cool T-shirts. But, I’ve always told myself that I wasn’t a runner. I learned that somewhere along the way in my younger years. I told myself I was too impatient and easily bored. I told myself that only a certain type of person could do these things. I told myself I had physical limitations, and eventually just believed it.🤷🏼♀️
Years of Almost
I started using the app “Couch to 5K” in the summer of 2011. And every summer I would re-download the app, and get to about the same point, where I would run for 2 miles. Then I’d stop for one reason or another. Every summer! I’d replay the same messages in my mind about not being a runner, being “fitnessly impaired,” never being able to get my act together, blah blah blah.
Leave it to 2020 to be the year I actually break through the barrier! Maybe my mind was too preoccupied to focus on the negative, limiting thoughts that were supposed to be accompanying me every time I put my running shoes on! Maybe I was trying to buy myself more time away from Fort Lockdown, AKA my home that I felt confined to during a pandemic, that I just kept going. Maybe it was because I was just focused on going a little further than I did the day before. Whatever it was, I did it.
And Then…
I was having coffee with an inspirational woman in my life over the summer when I mentioned that, “Oh, I ran a 5K, which is something I never, ever thought I could do.” She was excited for me and congratulating me. I cut her off to add, “Well, it wasn’t an actual official 5K like a race or anything. It was just me, by myself, in the woods. And trust me, the time it took me would probably be embarrassing to the actual runners I know.” I explained that no, this wasn’t any big deal that should be celebrated. “Now once I can do a 10K…”
She simply stared back at me and asked, “Why do you have to add that it was in the woods by yourself? Why can’t you just congratulate yourself without downplaying the whole thing?”
Umm…I didn’t have an answer to that. She was right. This wasn’t something that was a big feat to everyone in the world, but it was to me!
I thought a lot after that conversation about how I was so quick to skim over an accomplishment I had been working toward for years. What a disservice to the younger me who dreamed and worked toward becoming the thing I now was.
It’s so easy to do this in any area of life. We want something, we work toward it, and sometimes we’ve barely accomplished it before we’re focusing down the road at the next big thing, or comparing ourselves to people “better than us” in that area, and dismissing our own success.
What have you worked hard at only to have “future you” minimize once it’s accomplished?
Honor Your Younger Self
There is a younger version of you who only dreamed of doing the things you’ve done. Honor the work of your younger self. Take the time to celebrate every win! Don’t let the future you become an unappeasable version of the fulfilled woman or man you’re meant to be.
After taking the time to celebrate myself for accomplishing my running goal, I felt like there was nothing I could not do. What other lies had I been telling myself? I started debunking my own limiting beliefs one by one! And I did run that 10K. And I also moved forward in tons of other areas of my life!
That success was fueled into reality by love & appreciation of myself and the “younger me” who had put in a lot of work. Not by some self-deprecating drill sergeant version of myself who believed that perfection was the only option.
Bigger Things
Sure, a 5K is a fun challenge to overcome. But maybe you’ve walked through something really hard in your life. Know this: the younger you is proud of you. Take a moment today to thank her - or him - for putting one foot in front of the other on the path that led you here. When you can honor and appreciate these things, you can move forward every day knowing that joy is coming to the “future you” who is willing to celebrate you and your full-circle work.
Now back to 5Ks: just throwing this out there. I’m ready to be in that secret club now, so make sure you include me in your future race sign-ups, as long as there are T-shirts. 😁