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Speaker 1:
Hello friend, welcome to the audiovisual version of the advice column newsletter. And today I have a question for you. Do you ever drive past a construction site on your way to work or your way home something that you passed routinely and it just looks like nothing is happening at that construction site, week after week after week, and then suddenly, one day the building or the house is up and it's finished and it just seems like it's all the sudden. My friend and the cohost of the advice column podcast, justin Breeden, pointed out in one of our panel discussions how that's so interesting that it just seems like it takes forever and then nothing seems to be happening. But then, all of a sudden, one day it's done and it's kind of like the bamboo, where the roots just grow, grow, grow, grow but nothing's happening above ground. And then all of a sudden, when it comes above ground, it explodes in this rapid growth. But I've been thinking so much about how he said that.
Speaker 1:
And then, a few months ago, although I couldn't jog for more than 30 seconds at a time, I signed up for a half marathon. This training program claimed it could take a person from couch potato to the finish line of an endurance event, step by step. So although I was faithful to the schedule you know I printed it out I did it every single day, even when I was exhausted. I would make sure I got my walk, slash, jog and then more jog and then mostly jog. It just progressed and I would try to get it in every single day, but I didn't feel like my heart and lungs were getting stronger. I had a long way to go. I was really sedentary and out of shape. I still have a long way to go, but I just wasn't seeing the workouts get easier and I started feeling really discouraged.
Speaker 1:
And then I thought back to Justin's observation and I wondered what? If this is kind of like the construction site scenario, maybe I need to have the faith and the patience that if I keep going then one day I will wake up and the house will be built. But gosh, that was hard to do when it was week after week of feeling like nothing was changing. But sure enough, 10 weeks later, I can now jog, albeit at a very, very slow pace, for 30 minutes rather than 30 seconds, and while my fitness is still very much under construction, if you will, it's much easier to be motivated now that I can actually see evidence of the progress. So I recognize that that first phase where I wasn't seeing evidence is really the hardest phase for me and I know many times in life we do have to keep the faith, even in a vacuum of perceivable evidence. So even when there's nothing that we can look to to know, it's making a difference that we have to take that on faith.
Speaker 1:
And I'm curious what tools you use to stay motivated during those times, because I'd like to broaden my toolkit so I'm better at enduring those. I'm cognizant that we do need to pay attention to feedback and, if we're doing something and it's not working, not be closed off to that. But I also recognize a lot of times the feedback is going to take longer than I'm naturally inclined to wait for it. So I'd love to hear your ideas, if you'd be willing to reply and share and whatever construction projects are going on in your life. Here's to donning our hard hats and tackling them and just hammering away. And thank you so much for being part of this journey and learning alongside me and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.