Our mind is stronger than we know.

Hey everyone, I'm mentally too tired to continue my life story but I'll try to get to that by the end of the weekend. So I've recently been getting into better cardiovascular shape by running longer distances. On Monday I attempted a long jog (I didn't know how far it was prior to the run) that ended up being 6.5 miles. I was dead after but it felt great to successfully complete something that I'd never done before. So yesterday I had school until 3:00 PM and then went to the gym, came back home to study and finish homework, and then went on a run at 11:00 PM...

This run was a little bit different, I wanted to push myself until failure. I wanted to make myself quit, meet adversity face to face. So I set out on a jog with my iTouch, smartphone, and earbuds. I didn't know how far I was going to jog so I started my jogtracker app and started the jog. I felt great, ran for about 3.25 miles before I checked how long/far I'd been jogging. I decided to continue on...

Every step I took, I was going to have to retrace, meaning my jog back was the same distance to the turnaround point. So I set a street that I wanted to run to and eventually reached it, at 4.87 miles. As I stated earlier, I JUST started getting into better cardiovascular shape and the 6.5 mile jog on Monday trashed my body. So I stopped for about 60 seconds and then started on my path back home. I ate enough food for about a 3 miles jog so at the 1/2 way mark, my body was out of free floating energy. I found a motivational video on Youtube and pressed on....

At about 7 miles, I really started to doubt myself. I'm very into nutrition and fitness and KNOW that I didn't consume enough energy or my body to excel through the run, I was going to hit a wall. Every step I took, I was searching for a drinking fountain, wanting to wet my mouth so badly. At about 8 miles, my steps seemed to become smaller and smaller. My head began to feel different and I wanted to stop. My knees ached, my calves burned, and my throat was dry as ever, but I continued. I wanted this jog to break me, to make me quit, make me cry; I wouldn't let it.

I want to shout out a big thanks to Blink-182, Incubus, and Will Smith. I can't even begin to explain how many thoughts ran through my head during this epic run. I began to think about how little pain people want to go through. How little we are willing to sacrifice in order to be successful. I wanted to set myself apart, be different, express myself. I was unsuccessful at breaking myself, but the exercise worked my mental strength more than anything.

It's amazing to see how powerful the human mind is. We make excuses everyday on why we haven't completed something or progressed in life but it's all up to us. It's as simple as doing it. One quote that got me through the run, motivates me, and gives me chills is one by Will Smith.

“The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: You're getting off first, or I'm going to die. It's really that simple, right?

I successfully finished the longest jog I've ever don at 9.74 miles in 1:41 minutes. My pace is nothing special but what matters is that I didn't quit. I couldn't quit. Next time you think you can't do something, think again because our minds are a lot stronger than we know.

Have a great night everyone, I hope this helps at least one person out there. Feel free to comment on this and/or +1 or share it with your friends. I'm trying my best to reach as many people as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

Josh