Just Take One More Step

Life is a cruel, unforgiving mistress. No matter how good one day may be, no matter how much you accomplish, you will still get up that next day and do the usuals. It can often seem hopeless to try, knowing that no matter what you do, it will all become irrelevant with enough time. Think of the sheer amount of people that have existed in the 5,000 years of human recorded history. Now think of how many you can name. It's really discouraging.

Going into high school, I had no idea how to manage this concept. Looking at the seemingly infinite time that lays ahead of me can really squash any motivation I had to accomplish anything in life. And if I had just kept thinking about it in this abstract, macro way, I probably would have never found a solution to my issue. However, a solution came to me by looking at a slightly hard thing I had to do than find my purpose in the world; running a cross country meet.

In case you didn't know, I did cross country for all 4 years of high school. *hold for applause* And the hardest thing about doing cross country is the meets. It is where you are forced to put your money where your mouth is and all the fun gets pushed to the side. You think you're a good runner? Time to prove it. The thought of having to push my body to its limit for 20-ish minutes is a thought that you needed to be mentally prepped for. It's a difficult task for anyone, even good runners, so my coaches had to drop a little sage wisdom to keep us motivated throughout the race: Just take one more step.

If you stay focused on how much of the race you have left to do, even short races can seem like insurmountable tasks, but if you focus on just taking that next step, the race will be over before you know it. That's how I try to look at life. If you start speculating on how the next few years of your life will play out, you may be overwhelmed and think that it is impossible to get through. But, if you just focus on what you have to do today, just focus on taking that next step. The good times will come before you know it. That's what I learned in high school.