Quitting is Contagious

“I’m not retreating, I’m reloading.” - Sarah Palin

The act of quitting is contagious. Last month, I went for a run, which lasted for about 6 miles before I yielded to fatigue. To date, this was the longest distance that I have ever run. When I pulled up, I was only about one mile from my home. I walked the rest of the way back and even though I was stoked about running such a distance, I, much to my chagrin, had given up on myself.

The following morning I was cramped for time, so I decided to just run a couple miles so I would have time to shower and get out the door for work. Around the one mile mark, I became unusually indolent. Although I finished the 2.5 mile run, the last mile was a complete pain in the butt. I wondered how I could run for 6 miles one day, yet I wanted to quit a mile into a two-mile run.

I realized when I quit on that six-mile run; I triggered something in my brain which allowed me to sympathize with surrendering. Giving up that one time conditioned my brain to accept quitting, so even when I chose a short distance to run, my body was willing to succumb to the pressure because I had allowed it to do so before.

So, from then on, I vowed never to pull up on a run again. If I felt like crap, I would shorten the run to a distance where I knew I can make it back. I was going to finish every run, no matter the distance.

I am writing this weblog today, after completing a ten-mile run. With that said, I did not set out to run that far. In fact, I wasn’t paying attention and got myself further out than I wanted to. After I righted myself and began to head back to my target end, there wasn’t one time that I considered quitting. Had I ever ran ten miles before? Nope. What I had done is made it a point to run everyday and trained myself to accept nothing other than completion.

Anyone that knows me knows that Armageddon is my favorite movie of all time. There is no debate. Avatar gave it a run, but fell short in the end. There’s a line towards the end when the crew is worried that Harry will fail to detonate the nuclear warhead before zero-barrier. Calming the crew, AJ utters, “He doesn’t know how to fail.”

Thomas Edison said, I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work. These lessons can be applied to life. These characters trained themselves to believe that failure was not an option. And even in times when they came up short, they were able to absorb the bigger picture and use setbacks as motivation. If we condition ourselves in such fashion, we will perpetually reach for our dreams.