I’ve been running with the same group of friends for many years, with additions and friends dropping off to do other things.  Recently a friend that had run with me many years ago started coming back to join the group. I was thrilled to see him and told him so.  He said, “I’m just trying to get back to where I was.” The thought seemed innocent or productive but as I have thought about it I feel like the thought could be poison to progress.  The comparison to your former self isn’t useful or productive. Meeting ourselves where we’re at and celebrating progress is much more motivating than chasing our own ghosts and beating ourselves up for never quite catching them.

One example is Alisha.  Alisha is a competitive runner, having qualified and run the Boston Marathon.  She is driven, detailed oriented and had a lot of running success. At the beginning of the summer she woke up one morning exhausted, devoid of energy and wondering what had changed.  The symptoms just got worse, insatiable thirst, no energy and hormonal swings. She spent the next several months going from doctor to doctor and having test after test. She finally got the diagnosis of Diabetes insipidus, a failure of the pituitary gland. She started medication and took on the challenging of rebuilding her fitness.  She started working hard, running the miles and found herself frustrated with the comparison between where she had been and where her fitness was currently.