Hard Doesn't Mean Impossible

"You know that's going to be really hard, right?"

I only nod. There's no point trying to justify my decision. There's no way I could make you understand why I want to do this. There's no point in trying to explain how I will go about accomplishing this. It may seem out of character for me, but then again, being unpredictable is my forte.

I'll be the first to admit that I am a total girl. I love all things pink and sparkly. I have days where I think only Taylor Swift understands me. I would monogram everything I have if I was given the opportunity. Chocolate is my favorite food group, and my go-to on a bad day. My yoga pants have never seen the inside of a yoga studio. I like Nicholas Sparks movies and Elle Woods inspires me. You can almost always find my sorority symbol somewhere on my person. I'm majoring in Communications. I bake when I'm stressed out. I'm even at terrible driver.

Needless to say, it was a shock to my friends when I casually mentioned that I am going to start training now for next year's Spartan Race.

I love running. I used to run three miles every morning (before my boyfriend Mervyn took over my life). The freedom, the invincibility I feel when I run compares to nothing else I've ever experienced. Naturally, I would want to do some sort of race. If the opportunity arose, I could do a normal 5K tomorrow, but where's the fun it that? A 5K with obstacles that have been compared to military training? Yeah, cool, sign me up.

Never mind that I have zero upper body strength. Or that I'm no Spiderman when it comes to scaling walls. And that I have the hand-eye coordination of Helen Keller. (I blame my parents for the last one--they never let me play video games as a child). 

So, yes, this is going to be hard for me, but I like it that way. I'm the kind of girl who likes a challenge whether it recruiting the best girls for your chapter or throwing a javelin across a football field. Good things take hard work and dedication, each and every day. I won't just wake up one day and show up at the race. I will have to take my bad days to the track instead of the dessert bar. I will wake up and go to the gym to find the strength I need to complete the most physically demanding task of my life. I will have to push myself further than I have ever pushed before because that is the only way to make a change.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I feel like for months and even years, I've been craving something new, something a little scary, something that isn't handed over because of charm or connections. Even more so, I want to do something that even I was not sure I could accomplish. I'm done with excuses. I'm done waiting. I'm ready to work.

A little more discipline might be exactly what my shambly life needs.




*Image found on Tumblr