Make Yourself

I've always liked Nike's advertising. I find that the company's ads resonate with me. Sometimes, during a long and particularly challenging run, I catch myself thinking, just do it Lauren, just do it. It reminds me to stop making up excuses, to focus on the challenge and goal at hand, to bite the bullet if you will, and just do it.

I've lived in northern Virginia for a little over a year now. In addition to adjusting to a new industry and job, I've also had to adapt to the traffic and my daily commute. Growing up I would hear people talk about congested areas like Los Angeles and other parts of southern California, but I never took the time to really stop and think about what it meant for those people who drive an hour or two one way to work every day...until I moved to NoVa. This has been by far one of the most challenging adjustments I've had to get used to. With this new lifestyle I also found myself working long hours, with little free time left for myself during the week. I've been an avid runner since I was in the 8th grade, running 4-5 times a week, every week, year after year. Even in graduate school I would make time to run even if it meant staying up an hour later and even if I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before. But I was finding that fitting in time to run was difficult in northern Virginia, and the less I got to run the more miserable I started to feel.

Not only was it difficult to find time to run, I kept making excuses for myself. If I went running after work it meant running as late as 8 or 9pm, depending on when I got done with work. If 8 or 9pm was too late then that meant that the only other option was in the morning. Anyone close to me will tell you, I'm a sleeper and have the hardest time getting out of bed. I tried several times to get up to workout in the morning and I just couldn't do it. On top of that, I would have to run on a treadmill. In January it's dark outside from 5pm until by 7am and as a female there was no way I'd be taking any chances with my safety. But the problem with a treadmill was that 1. I hated running on a treadmill 2. You don't burn as many calories running on a treadmill, and 3. Running outside is just so much better. Can you see where I'm going with this...

Then, one day in February, after deciding that I had felt sorry for myself long enough, I got the idea to post a flyer at my gym to see if anyone would like to start a running group. I asked the manager at the gym, who said yes thankfully, posted the flyer, and a few days later I got an email from someone. That someone happened to be a female and about my age who was at the same running speed and fitness level as me. I was thrilled! To make things even better, she has turned out to be a great friend.

My new running partner and I decided to meet 3 days a week and to run about 5 miles every time. I will admit, it was difficult at first to get myself out of bed and my body felt tired and strained running in the early hours of the morning. My initial approach was to take it day by day. I didn't let myself think about the entire week at once, I just focused on the next step I needed to take. Now that I've been at it for about 4 months it's not hard anymore. It's become a part of my routine and my favorite way to start the day. Sometimes I'm still a little surprised that I get myself up at 5:40am to go running. I'm proud that I was proactive to take responsibility for my own happiness when it would have been so much easier to blame everything else in my life. I'm also proud that I actually followed through with something that initially seemed so hard, yet was so easy, like getting my butt out of bed in the morning.

The Nike ad is a powerful message that I am responsible for taking care of myself. It's also a reminder that my life is entirely up to me. It's up to me to decide who I will be, how I will live my life and how I will let my experiences shape me. And the same is true for you.