Looking back to move forward

Last week I wrote about time and dare I say ‘Time Management’ the term we often shy away from, thinking maybe that’s possible for someone who has a Personal Assistant 🙂

It got me thinking about time and goals that I’m pursuing.

Yes, this week I had a ‘moment’ with a goal where I was left feeling flat and disappointed. It is a running goal that I’ve set with a time and date. This is to happen in a couple of weeks time, so I thought I’d test myself out.

This run had me a little disappointed this weekend, ok I was in tears! I ran for a certain time; smiling, being grateful that I CAN run and doing the best I could on the day … and didn’t make the distance in the time planned and YES I was disappointed. “In tears about a dumb run?” The voice in my head questions almost mocking me. Yes, I cannot believe I’m admitting this to you.

This made me think of my running journey and looking back at my diary, I read:

“Jan 21, 2013 – Doing my long brisk walk session this evening, I found myself walking along a path with a huge grin on my face. This isn’t as long as I once thought… not so long ago it was a massive achievement to run this length. Now I finally take time to breathe and look back at how far I’ve come and the improvements I have made.

This is something I’m learning to do with this marathon challenge, as I have done in the past with my whole life journey, just to pause once in a while, breathe and look back and see how far I have come and where I am going.

I have heard people say, even motivational speakers, “Look forward and never look back.” I understand what they mean, but I still think looking back for me, personally reminds me of the journey that has led me to now hasn’t always been rainbows and lollipops reminding me how I have succeeded and struggled in the past to get to my goals. At this particular moment I am reminded of the fact that it takes baby steps to get to a big goal. So I look back at my small baby steps here; 30 steps, then this path and next my 5.3km fun run challenge and now it appears more achievable in my mind, encouraging me to keep believing in me.” 

Reading this brings me to a state that encourages me to keep going, keep striving to reach my goal, even if it doesn’t happen on the exact date. I must also admit, I haven’t put in the training time as I should to train for such a result to happen…

Have you ever made a goal and haven’t quite reached it at the exact time you aimed for? We all do it from time to time; I’m not claiming to be Queen Goal Achiever 🙂 So maybe we should look back once in a while and keep striving for that goal and pat ourselves on the back for the distance we have made already along the way…I’m not just talking about running.

The Power Is In Me…it’s in You too!

Donna

A Frame in Time

Have you ever gone back in time with thoughts that bring a smile to your face? Or thoughts that may even leave you feeling in a state of agony? Or perhaps the sound of a tune brings back an emotion that captures you in the exact state of feeling and brings a picture from the past in your mind or even that physical tingling of joy that is associated with that tune. We’ve all been there right?

I am feeling this today as I write and reflect back in time of past stories I am sharing in my book. I keep going on about how scary and exciting this is, but it is also a adventure that I am happy to go back to and experience all the exciting moments all over again, which is my aim as a writer to take you into a journey as if you are in it and there with your own thoughts and eyes to see what you wish through my words of reflection. However there are moments of my past that bring tears to my heart, but also give me and the reader the opportunity to reflect and feel different emotions all over again.

Today though, I am pleased to be writing about when I first started sharing with people close to me, other than my coach’s, about my huge marathon challenge.

The feelings of excitement that I had in myself, to learn to run again came rushing back. That original feeling even gave me the past feeling before that; from a memory of myself at seven years of age, running across the school oval in a race with my classmates and coming across the line first. Not really fully realising back then the distance of what a marathon would be like on foot. Yes, I knew it was 42.2 kms but that was a number I really hadn’t initially fully comprehended. I just knew it was a huge goal and that I was going for it and that I was excited.

As silly, naive or some would say just plain stupid as that may seem, I like to think of it as an exciting time and a case of having no fear of the unknown…this makes me smile as I write.
It reminds me of how we can associate feelings we place on ourselves that we connect with any goal. This can be a positive result or even end up as a negative.

If I held onto negative feelings associated with running a marathon, then that is what would have manifested negativity, and I would not have even started training for it.
So today’s writing has put me in a frame of time, bringing back an animated feeling, giving a response of joyful overwhelm all over again as if I were back in that picture.

Who knows what tomorrows writing will bring, it’s not all sunshine and lollipops…but that’s what makes life interesting.

The Power is in Me…it’s in You too!
Donna

Once upon a time…

Since writing my last blog I sadly received unfortunate news of a death in my family. Naturally it is a sad time, he will be missed by loved ones, but at the same time he lived a full long healthy life of over 91 years of age.

Listening to the eulogy at the funeral service, the amazing story told of a passionate man who survived the escape in a communist country fleeing armed soldiers and receiving refuge from nuns who protected him…this was just a tip of the adventures that lay ahead for the life of a truly heroic young man who left his family, stopping along his travels through a few countries to eventually start a new life in Australia.

It is always an interesting time when hearing a eulogy, even if you have known somebody all your life or only for a moment, there is always something new revealed in a eulogy…in a life story. We never really know the full details of one’s life until there is a time such as this when a group of people get together to join in to contribute their thoughts, their knowledge, their experiences in this life to form a eulogy.

I was even asked to stand in front of the service to give my reflections, and pass my experience of the times that I shared to give the essence of a true gentleman and pleasant character that he held. Even though I had never been in this position to share stories at a funeral service, it was a privilege and honour to be asked to contribute in his tribute.

This got me thinking of the story telling that I am currently doing with the writing of my book, my own life story. Just as it is interesting to hear others opinions, stories, secrets even of a passed person’s life which you thought you may have known, this can too be the case in my own living life. How can that be so?! It seems kind of odd right? But maybe not.

When reflecting on my own life writing the past experiences that lead me to where I am today, there is so much of a journey to be told that can be added by others like in a eulogy to combine and make a story or reflection from, I consider this almost like a school assignment.

Sharing my story in a book from the age of 7 years of age not only involves my own thoughts and memory but also others who were in that same picture, for example my parents and looking over my medical records, which looks like a novel in itself! This has involved intriguing conversations with my mother and father and hearing stories that I didn’t even know that had actually involved me, almost like hearing some other body’s eulogy.

Why do we wait to have to write someone’s eulogy to find these amazing journeys when we could share intriguing stories right now?

 

The Power Is In Me!

Donna