Watch out 1/2 marathon, I'm comin' for ya! Oh, and sorry Post, looks like you don't get to slug me come Saturday. I'm well on my way to the 32 miles I promised I'd run by then. This last week was kind of a bummer for running: cold and incredibly wet weather is not my idea of running weather in any way, shape or form! Despite being a little behind in my schedule I none the less added another 9 miles tonight. I was shooting for just 8 but my route estimation was a little bit off. Oh well. I think 9 miles is actually the longest I've ever run; including in the military, in college and afterwards. And I celebrated my personal best with a well deserved chocolate milk shake. Okay, so it was a chocolate milk shake flavored Muscle Milk, but it was a tasty and satisfying reward none the less.
I was reminded again why it is I love to run long distances (if you can call 5-10 miles long): I have found few other times when I "get in the zone." I was around 5 miles tonight when I found I'd been drifting off into thoughts of projects I wanted to work on and people I wanted to talk to. Not in any cluttered-mind sort of way, but in a totally at ease kind of way. I wasn't slacking on my running either. In fact I realized I was breathing very easily, but running at a very steady, brisk pace. I was so at ease running - my body just doing what it knew I wanted it to do - that I could let my mind wander to other things, things I enjoy thinking about, creative things that didn't require my body. So, in that time my mind was doing one thing and my body was doing another. I love being in that place!
We watched a video in marketing class today that, despite being roughly as old as I am, made me think. The video itself was mostly ridiculous 80's pop culture cut together in an editing style and scripted in a way that made me think back to Reading Rainbow! But there was one speaker on the tape that really hit home with me. This business instructor and book author was talking about commitment. He talked about how, as business people and managers, they're taught to keep all options open. That limiting yourself in business is a bad thing. This struck a nerve because I've found that I do this same thing. I don't like being locked into one thing unless I'm absolutely positive it's the very best thing to do at that moment; so I keep my options open and don't fully commit until I absolutely have to. Even then I'm still keeping my eyes open for something else in case it comes along. Very rarely have I found myself 100% engulfed and dedicated to some pursuit. This has troubled me lately, especially as I look to graduating and leaping full time into the business of visual journalism. More and more I feel like I need to find something I can commit unabashedly to.
And that's what this guy on the video tape was saying. That contrary to common business sense, committing whole-heartedly to a decision and putting everything you have into making that work is often the best course of action; that sometimes it isn't the fact that you made the right decision that determines success, just that you made a decision. I don't know what my decision for the future will be yet, but I do know that when the time comes I'll be ready to put my all into the one I make.