Saturday, May 12, 2012

Inspiration

I will sometimes get comments about being "an inspiration"  and while I know it's a compliment, to be honest I have never been comfortable with that. It feels funny given I am just doing what I have been lucky enough to discover and I don't feel deserving of such credit. It's not as if I'm doing something heroic or overcoming some great odds.

I didn't know exactly why I felt so funny about it, since I do hope that the fun and energy that I have discovered through sport and fitness will influence others to seek the same. In that sense I really do want folks to be inspired -- in the adjective sense of themselves, not in the noun sense of me!

A recent situation helped me finally get to the root of the issue.
I was waiting on my youngest to finish up at a birthday party and I was chatting with the other moms (and one dad). I had just finished a morning brick workout that included a rough 35 mile bike ride in an unexpected cold heavy rain. I had been under-dressed and miserable. I toughed out the ride and finished up with a great run that all-in-all left me pretty pumped.

Somehow my brick workout just "came up" in the party-waiting conversation. (LOL!) Honestly, it does come up!! Most people who know me go with the "how is training" greeting rather than the standard "how is life/family/weather/etc."

Anyway, about a week and a half later, I saw one of those moms at a school function. She told me that because of that conversation and discovering that I had worked out in such adverse conditions, she decided she could get up off the couch and start doing something. At that point she had done something every day for five days including bike riding and some easy running, mailbox-to-mailbox just like when I started! Her excitement was palpable and I was so happy for her! I offered praise and encouragement and said I would check up and see how she was doing.

I felt great to think that I played a small role in her getting up off the couch! She was inspired to move, and I am totally comfortable having a role in that!

So I figured it out. If you feel "inspired" you need to finish that sentence. That goes for me too.

Inspired to do what? 

Inspiration without action or change is just ethereal....floating out there doing nothing. (I could put some kind of great quote here from some famous or smart person, but that isn't my style.)

The next time you are feeling inspired, please, put that into motion! Do something with it. Make a change, just a small one! I am going to be aware and do the same thing. Inspiration can come from many sources, it is given and received without cost, but empty of value unless i do something with it.


Photo Note: The picture up above shows a happy me who thought I had just finished 5 x 2 miles threshold intervals today. I found out when I got home and looked at my data that I had only done 4. How's that for inspiration, LOL!