Ultrarunning brought us all together and created an environment for us to cut through the barriers of social awkwardness, opposition, and disconnect. Topics of politics, race, religion, or any other areas where we like to choose sides were nonexistent. 

I chose to press on despite the pain.

And I’m glad I did.

A few hours later, I was running down the mountain again, pushing way beyond what I thought was possible. I ran all the way through to the finish. 30 miles after I thought I was done.

FOMO. The fear of missing out.

This can be a real mental struggle for those who struggle or have struggled with addictions.

I’m coming up on 4 years of sobriety from alcohol, and recently I’ve found myself in a few scenarios where the urge to have a drink has become a real consideration.

It’s easy to get stuck in your head when dealing with grief, pain, and trauma. It’s so easy to feel alone. 

But I can guarantee that you’re not.

You need to find the strength to open up and talk about it. Even if it’s uncomfortable.

There comes a point in many ultramarathons where things get hard, expectations might change, and we feel like quitting. A lot of times this revelation occurs when we’re traveling uphill.

The same could be said about life.

It got me thinking about other areas where I’ve been unintentionally wasteful due to poor habits or by default. The leftovers in the fridge we toss a couple of days later because they got pushed to the back, where they are just out of sight. The time spent scrolling on social media when I should be doing things that are important to me.

So, anytime I’m feeling selfish or hesitant to give some of me to someone or something, it’s always a good reminder to take a good long look at the situation and possibly reconsider my approach. Maybe giving is the right thing to do, even when I don’t want to.

But, it’s also a good idea for us to audit our current opened tasks to see if there are some things we can scrap altogether to clear up some mental space. Not everything we start needs to be finished. But, until we take the time to discover what those things are, they’ll continue running in the background, draining us of our energy little by little.