It’s Not About Speed, It's About Endurance

Some years back I thought I was putting on too much weight so I decided to start jogging in the mornings. I found a partner who lived in our estate, but he was into sports so could run much further distances than me. 

We calculated what a mile would be and planned to achieve that every morning by running past all the closes, right down to the end of the estate. As I got out all motivated in my running shoes we hit the road and I realised I couldn't run even a quarter of the distance, I lived in Close C but I couldn't run from Close C to Close E without stopping. By the time I had reached Close F I had to stop and I was so disappointed in myself –embarrassed even. 

Everyday that I would get out and start running I would look ahead and just say "let me make it one nonstop mile today... " Every time, I would get exhausted. I would look at the closes and get so frustrated that I was that tired and not even halfway yet. I'd get so disappointed I would just start to walk. This happened over and over again, then my running partner advised me to slow down and try to maintain a comfortable pace. "it’s not about speed, its about endurance." 

So I changed my approach, I started running and decided not to count the closes, not to watch the time, but to just focus on what was right in front of me, one step at a time, at an even pace. After a while I could run double that distance comfortably. 

It prompted me think of life in so many ways. You can’t get overwhelmed with how far you have to go and its more about endurance than speed. We set out with these huge goals for ourselves and they seem so hard to reach. I want to be more romantic, I want to read the entire bible with my kids this year, I want to pray all through the night like Jesus did, I want to live a pure holy, life and so on… They seem so impossible, and its easy to give up. Life and its circumstances distract us, and we get frustrated.

We have to focus and realise that several little drops make an ocean. Start of by reading a few verses a day from Proverbs to your children. Send your spouse a sweet message once a day even if its just “honey, have a sweet day”. Pray for 30 minutes everyday then 40 and work your way up.

And always remember that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong...it’s to the one who endureth to the end.

Have a sweet day…

By Ijeoma Olujekun