How life can be a long hard run
This is a new article in my Scio series on easy self-understanding. (Scio is Latin for I know.)
As I usually like to do, I’ve put imagined self-talk in italics.
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How are you going in the running?
Life's a long hard run.
This is a very common view of how life is. Is this your perspective? Is this how life is meant to be? How are you going in the running?
We all need power to keep going - or keep running. That’s a basic fact of life. We mostly travel through this life on worldly power. That's what we've all been taught to do. How's your personal power level? Is it up for the challenge? Is it up for the challenge of this day?
We've been programmed to believe there's power in our status, or our position in the social hierarchy and the amount of authority we hold. We've been taught to see power in our material possessions, particularly in our money and other acquisitions which we’ve learned to see value in.
We've been led by societal thought leaders to believe that we score more power every time we win a worldly battle, in the form of a contest or a competition or a challenge or a test. Or a race.
We learn to test ourselves. Am I winning?
We may ask our anxious selves each day. Am I winning yet? Am I coming out ahead? How much do I have to show for myself that proves that I have worth? How much have I improved? Enough, or not enough?
In the long run of my life, am I coming out ahead? How’s my worth? Have I got enough power to keep going?
We've learned to look at life as a race we have to run. We expect our run in life to be a long and hard one, until eventually we reach the finish line. Eventually and inevitably our race comes to its end.
When our life actually arrives at its finish line we rarely feel like celebrating though. Life's end, in the way we typically experience it, doesn't feel like a success. As our run in life comes to a close, we'll likely think more like a loser than a winner.
I should have run my life much better. I should have made more progress, been further down the track.
I didn't learn enough from my mistakes. In the long run I didn't come out far enough ahead.
I can’t feel proud. I let my pace slacken. I’ve allowed myself to fall behind. I didn't make enough progress. The fault is mine, and mine alone.
These are common life regrets. At the end of life, each of us is literally a loser.
If we believe in heaven, we can find comfort in the promise of a better life to come, even if on earth we failed to win.
If we've accepted a belief in reincarnation into our own causal belief system, we may vow to run a better race the next time we’re offered a new lease on life, or a fresh contract. We may vow to run a better race next time around, that's more strategic and more likely to put us further ahead in worldly terms.
At the finish of our life-run, we should be able to look back on a life well run in worldly terms. These will be terms or definitions of worldly power, especially accumulated wealth, or perhaps a position of powerful authority we have reached in our society through perseverance, persistence and commitment to our ambitious aims.
Making a name for ourselves, to be perpetually admired in posterity, is proof we've run a most successful race. A good and admirable name (or other mark) we've left behind us, will prove that in the long run, we reached a superior position to most other runners in the race.
At the end of the day …
At the end of the day, of any normal ordinary day, the day will be looked back on for review. For many people, this is habit, this is routine, this is custom:
According to all my own calculations when I’m summing up my day, should I have been further down the track by now? Should I have paid more attention? Should I have put more effort in?
We may stop to ask ourselves the basic question: Am I winning? especially at the end of a long, hard day of many challenges, tests, trials and difficult tasks. At long last, this tough and challenging day is coming to a close.
Tonight we self-interrogate.
Did I win the day? Am I feeling like a loser? Am I suffering defeat? Did I let my competitors get ahead of me? Did I let the opposition win? Did I hold myself back? Was I trying hard enough to catch up?
Am I ashamed of today's performance? Can I think of any reason to feel proud? Just one?
Can I vow to myself that tomorrow I'll do better, and then I’ll be able to switch off this stressful race review? Can I let go my review of my personal performance in today's competition, so I can give myself permission to just fall into sleep?
Tomorrow is another day. Every day in every way I'll do better. I really need to win.
I'll be worth more. I'll make myself more powerful. My life success is my responsibility. I must depend on me.
Hopefully as the next day finishes, we'll be able to feel satisfied that we've become more powerful in worldly terms. Ideally, we'll have evidence to show for ourselves that’s going to prove our progress, such as more money in the bank or more admiration and accolades from the people who count. (The people who count are the people in our life who judge us and evaluate our worth.)
In the way we’ve run our day, we’ll aim for proof that we've run a better race and come out ahead, maybe even at the leading edge.
Following the promise of improved performance at the start of tomorrow, we can drop asleep tonight. Ideally then, the next day we'll run our lives with more success and satisfaction.
We'll make progress that can be measured and recorded. We'll self-advance until we can feel that we are winning. We should come out ahead as we're sure we're always meant to do.
Today I'm feeling much more like a winner. I've got plenty of power to run a good race and beat the competition. I'm sure of coming out in front.
I'm all prepared to win. This is what my life is all about. No way I'll be a quitter or start to slow my pace. I’m determined not to fall behind. I refuse to be a loser. That’s my goal.
But underneath the shiny show of power and determination, there may be gloomy recognitions.
If I’m being honest with myself, I can feel I’m often struggling. I try hard to maintain my place in the race that I’ve set for myself. My minimum achievement is actually quite high. In the long hard run, I can find it really difficult to keep up the pace that I demand of myself and I’m always insisting that I should.
When I keep an eye on how I’m really going, I can often see that other runners are outpacing me. They’re getting ahead of me, especially my competitors that I’ve set my sights on beating. This tells me that I need to put more focus into trying to catch up.
But today I feel courageous and I’ll put extra effort in!
Life's hard I’m well aware of that. I can see so much proof that life is full of challenge and power’s hard to get. And power’s hard to keep a hold of. We all need power to keep going. It can’t be easy to keep going and stay in the running. That’s how it’s meant to be.
My life is always challenging but I feel confident. I have my eye, set steady on the prize. I'm a winner now and I'm going to stay a winner in the long run. That’s my focus. That's my firm intention. That’s my lifelong goal.
My life is running as it's meant to, full of meaning, full of challenges, full of wins. Whatever hurdles or other challenges I’m confronted by this day, I'll be able to get over them. Bring them on!
I’ll keep on running up ahead.
But let’s be realistic here. I'm aware that in the long hard run which I’ve been programmed with, as my personal perspective of what life is meant to mean, I will lose. The race I have to face each and every day, is always difficult and challenging. My power will eventually run out. I won’t keep winning. I’ll be last.
But when my race is finally run, I vow to leave behind me, good evidence that I always tried to make sufficient progress to be proud of. I ran my life with focus and commitment.
With my own determination and under my own steam, I advanced myself. I outlasted so much opposition. I tried hard to beat all my competition. I couldn’t let them win. I wouldn’t. I always tried to get ahead. I aimed for winning most.
I hope my legacy will show that in the long run of my life, you’d never catch me sitting idly by the wayside. I never dropped out of the running and I always tried my best to outrun other runners. For every time that I achieved my personal best in the running of my day, I’ll earn credit, maybe I’ll deserve distinction for the high level of my worth.
Life’s a long hard run. No-one can escape this fact. Everyone’s aware of this if they’re being realistic. Life was never meant to be easy, so we’ve all been told. So we’ve all been told by early life authorities whom we trust to give us truth. We believe them. And we won’t see it any other way.
When I was coming out in front I’d worked hard for my successes. Every time I fell behind, I put in lots of extra effort to catch up. Life’s a long hard run. And I refused to take it easy. In the long hard run of life, I had to prove that I was worthy. In the long run, I always had to try my best to win.
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