Inspiration
I got a little inspiration recently when I talked to Jessica Stutzman for a basketball story I was writing. Stutzman had her fair share of physical woes while growing up a Lady Hawk at Hiland High School.
A very promising career was sidelined by knee issues, which were originally diagnosed as shin splints. Stutzman found herself in and out of the line-up throughout her career, resting her body, then throwing it around the floor like a napkin in a wind storm on the occasions that she got to play.
It would have been easy for her to feel like she got ripped off in her years of playing, but instead, she told me something that I found inspirational.
"Sometimes people wonder if everything that we do for basketball is worth it," said Stutzman. "I have never regretted any of it. I learned a lot from playing, a lot of things that don't just relate to basketball."
Things in life that matter beyond wins and losses. Stutzman talked about developing a pension for working diligently toward goals, about how to sustain when things look bleak and about how you find ways to do the things you love, the pastimes for which you have a passion.
She had learned that she could take what she had learned and apply it elsewhere in life.
I guess that's where I am at with this whole walking thing. I can look at it like it is a chore, something that I have to grind through just to get to the light at the end of the tunnel, or I can take what I have begun and use it for something more.
Maybe that something more is being able to spend quality years later in life with my children. Maybe it is being able to spend more time with my wife. Perhaps it is simply making myself healthier so that I can be more productive in doing something that I truly enjoy: Being useful to others.
WalK has created in me a desire to live a healthier lifestyle. People like Stutzman come along and inspire me to understand why it is that I am doing what I am doing. It isn't because the number 1,000 holds some magical meaning, that in reaching that milestone my life will magically change, and I'll be some massive super-charged physical freak.
It is the means by which I can make my life better and more productive.
One thousand miles in 2011 isn't the end of the journey, but simply the beginning.
Quotes to ponder
— "A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug." — Patricia Neal
— "Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion." — Georg Wilhelm
Published: February 25, 2011
