Last weekend, four friends and I drove to the Oceanfront at 5:45 am (in the dark) for the culmination of three months of training: the Shamrock Half Marathon. It was still dark out and only about 45 degrees. The kicker was that the wind was blowing about 25-30 mph and it was starting to rain.
As we made our way from the car to the starting area, the wind was whipping up a heavier rain right into our faces. We had ponchos on that were blowing all over the place. It was not a pretty picture, and the prospect of waiting an hour for the start and then running two more hours in this was making us downright miserable. Our spirits were rolling downhill fast, and our bellies were filling with dread.
Enter GRATITUDE.
I challenged everyone to think of something about our crappy situation that we could be grateful for.
- Not everyone can afford the entry fee for the race
- We were able to train for three months
- There’s beer at the finish line
- Our friends shore us up and make us smile in the rain
- We have a sense of humor
- We are tough mothers (and a tough daughter)
- There are people who would love to be here right now but can’t (Stacy!)
- We are running on our own two feet (Team Hoyt!)
- We are running a loop, not fleeing a war-torn country
- We have sole sisters
Very quickly, we reminded ourselves of some poignant reasons why wind and rain were not the biggest problems in the world. We would deal with this and make the most of it.
This five minutes of gratitude didn’t change the outside conditions, but it CHANGED US INSIDE. Imagine a metal ball rolling recklessly down a hill, and a huge magnet gradually pulls it sideways, slowing it down and changing its path. That is what gratitude did for us.
The conditions were still miserable. But that shift, made by gratitude, saved the race.
I challenge YOU to try this today. Surely something unpleasant will happen to you–a slow line at the grocery store, a jerk on the road, that asshole at work. No matter how trite the irritation, try to apply some gratitude. Then tell me what happens.
