Resistance

What do you do when you come face to face with resistance? Do you back down, or do you take the step up on the ladder? Do you run away from it or look it straight in the eye. If you look it straight in the eye ... is it with anger or respect?

Resistance is opportunity is disguise. Opportunity to grow, become stronger, mature. Resistance manifests itself in many ways ... pain ... doubt ... fear.... but once you learn to recognize it, learn to respect it.

Fight it, get angry with it, and it will rear it's head somewhere. sometime.

Acknowledge it, respect it. Step right up to it an look it in the eye. When the time is right put your foot on the rung of the ladder and take the step up. The rung is resistance and with the right tools it will help you become a stronger person, a stronger athlete, a stronger career person....... a stronger you.

Think about how you have previously dealt with it. Before, when you came into the uncomfortable situation you did what you were taught to do. You got up and got out. Run, get away, change something elsewhere to make it all feel better.

Now you have learned to stay in uncomfortable situations. Learned to absorb the resistance whether it be physical or emotional. Walk through the fire, don't be afraid to get burned. It will hurt, of course it will. Emerge from the other side stronger.

To become stronger we must become weaker. To become stronger we must embrace humility and we must embrace respect. For what? That's for you to decide. Only you know your own resistance, only you know what you need to face, to look in the eye, to respect and acknowledge.

My respect for the Ironman is vast. I know that this is a race that is beyond the physical training. The physical training is almost the easy part. There are things that happen between mile 1 and mile 140.6 that I can not articulate, not explain, and not teach. You are not the same person at the finish line that you were at the starting line.

Not only are there physical challenges, there are nutritional, emotional challenges. Resistance. Getting angry at the Ironman will never help. For me, I must look around me and continually seep into the energy, in Lake Placid I gather energy from the mountains and forests that surround me. I respect the distance, the race and all that it entails.

Some days I walk away from this race and this training stronger. Some days I walk away from this weaker. Either way I am respectful. I will not pound my chest and proclaim to be the Queen Poombah of anything. For me it is proper to close my eyes, take my seat and allow the day to unfold as it will.

It has been a very long time since I have allowed myself to race like that. There has been a lot of clutter in the way during the past 2 years.

The clutter has been cleared. I have walked through the fire. And as this journey continues to evolve, my ears and my heart are open. I am ready to look resistance in the eyes. I am ready to acknowledge it, respect it, and allow it to teach me.

Resistance is opportunity in disguise.

:-) Mary Eggers