So, first of all: a few weeks back, on Facebook, I posted a link to Scare Yourself Every Day. The basic concept is that this guy, Greg, decided to take the famous Eleanor Roosevelt quote, "Do one thing every day that scares you," and put it into action. For 365 days, he literally sought out things that scare him, and he forced himself to do them. The results are extraordinary. Having read some of his posts, he went through an incredible metamorphosis as a person over his year journey. It's very inspiring, and it makes you wonder, "What if I did that?"
Well, since I posted it a couple of weeks ago, several people have told me that my putting that up on Facebook really inspired them. People have actually told me that they too are doing one thing a day that scares them. They usually say this with a knowing smile, and look at me like we're in something together. And eventually... I started to realize that people thought (think?) that my posting that means that I am actively doing one thing every day that scares me. The truth is that I... haven't... been, at least not in a constructed way like Greg. But at the same time, since reading his words and increasingly since people started telling me that they too think this is a great challenge, I am certainly more aware of the things that I want to do but don't because they scare me.
It seems silly but yesterday I went to a grocery store I didn't know the layout for and bought clams which I didn't know how to cook. That's just a (very) little thing, but now I know that store and I know how to cook clams. And the more little things I do like that, the more those little things add up and and the more I'm starting to realize that my reality is expanding.
Anyway, when people talk about 5ks and running 5ks, I have always thought some form of "Oh, that doesn't apply to me..." Basically, I tune out in a way where I'm interested in their experience but I do not in any way see it as an experience that is relatable to me at all. Why? Well the truth is, I never really learned to run. It's easy to think that running isn't something you need to learn to do, because you won't fall off of running the way you might a bike, but really, you do need to learn how to do it. And I never did.
So naturally, the idea of running, scares me.
I decided today, after thinking "I should really learn how to run..." for months (years?) that I should legitimately learn how to run. I mean, what if something/someone is chasing me someday? So, I downloaded a handy 5k training app and hit the pavement. Well, I hit the dirt roads. There's no pavement in my neighborhood. There are also no people in my neighborhood, which is really good, because telling my current self to run is pretty much like telling Cathy that she has to run out of her cartoon strip and do some laps around the Sunday paper. In a word, "Aack."
The training program had me run six minutes out of the 25 minute workout. To those of you who know how to run and/or aren't total babies, that probably sounds like a breeze, but to me that's foreign. I'll be doing it again in a few days.
Logic tells me it'll get easier as I go along, but we will see. As of now, this still counts as something that scares me!
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