The First Step

Most people who know me know that I am a really big fan of Gretchen Rubin's for so many reasons. As her work pushes my thinking and sense of self-awareness, it's given me a whole new reason to appreciate her. Gretchen's (yes, I refer to her by her first name) most recent book, Better Than Before, is about habit forming and how knowing yourself can lead to more effective habit building and ultimately, a happier life. 

So with her voice in the back of my mind (literally; she has an awesome podcast too), I tried to set myself up for success after an amazing, but hectic, summer. Rather than wait to get settled in to my new job before "finding" the time to run, I knew it was important to jump right in. If I waited for things to slow down, I'd be waiting forever. Instead of finding the time, I had to make it, so as soon as I started my new job in August, I made sure to schedule runs as well. More so than I have in a long time, I scheduled my runs routinely, which has been helpful. Saturday morning, Tuesday morning, and Thursday afternoon have been my times to run, and knowing that schedule cuts out the decision making, because it's become part of my routine. I know this won't be forever, especially as I start to ramp up my training for Hope Express, but if the goal was to get back into running, it feels good to say I've accomplished that.

The same holds true for getting back in to writing on my blog. I can't wait until I have the perfect idea or until I have a larger block of time. Knowing myself, taking the first step on a project or in the way of building a habit goes a really long way for me. Oftentimes, I just need to begin.

And so now, I've begun! I've got a pretty solid foundation under my belt; one that, on top of getting me back out there, has served me during this major life transition. And that's something worth celebrating, because part of knowing myself is finally accepting that I'm a runner.