A thousand days sounds like a long time. A thousand days IS a long time. A thousand days works out to almost 33 months–just 95 days short of three years. And, while I have started my personal project of commenting on political social media posts that I take issue with, as I said I was going to do in last week’s post, this week I’m going to focus on something completely different: my run streak. And how tomorrow, February 1st, 2021, will be the 1000th day in a row that I’ve run at least a mile.
When I started running every day on May 9th, 2018, I was looking for something stable to cling to. I was planning to quit teaching (again) even though I didn’t have another job/career lined up yet (again). I was pretty torn up about the decision, because I knew that there were lots of things about teaching that I would miss–especially the kids. But I still knew I needed to quit. And, thankfully, The Bearded One was supportive of my decision. So, to deal with the uncertainty of not having a plan, I started running. A girl I went to high school with had been posting about her run streak for years, and it seemed like a good way to take control of something in my life, at least. It was hard to stay motivated at first. But the allure of feeling like I was accomplishing something kept me going for the first few weeks, and then it just became a habit. And, in my experience, once a habit is established, especially a daily habit, it doesn’t require motivation to keep it going–it just becomes something you do.
Shortly after I started my run streak, my mom showed me an ad in the newspaper for a job posting that I probably wouldn’t have found on my own. I applied almost immediately, and I interviewed during the last few weeks of that spring semester. I actually got the call offering me the job while I was at school, cleaning out my classroom the week after school got out for the summer. I had already submitted my continuing contract to the school district with the box checked saying that I wouldn’t be returning in the fall, so until that point I was going on faith that I would figure something out. I started working at the new job about a week later.
And now I’ve had both my run streak AND that job for almost three years. A thousand days. That’s longer than Presidents (William Henry) Harrison, Taylor, Fillmore, Garfield, Harding, and Ford served as Commander in Chief. Longer than Julius Caesar’s rule of the Roman Empire. Longer than Britney was married to K-Fed. And longer than the 1918 influenza pandemic. My run streak has lasted longer than all but about four of the eleven or twelve different jobs I’ve had. And, I think longer than any romantic relationship I had until I met The Bearded One (according to my calculations, it’s been 1893 days since our first date–that’s a weird/fun thing to have figured out. <3). A thousand days is a long time. But the main thing I want to highlight in this post is that it doesn’t really feel extraordinary. I mean, sure, when I step back and really think about it, it sounds impressive but, as I mentioned, it’s just something I do every day now. Like brushing my teeth. It’s a habit, and habits are powerful.
Speaking of which, on Tuesday of this week, I’ll hit two months of my writing streak–that will be sixty two days of writing for at least 15 minutes every day. And also on Tuesday, I’ll turn another year older–to an age that’s just one shy of a pretty significant one. And as I enter the last year of my thirties, I’m looking ahead with hope, joy, and determination. There are a lot of things I want to accomplish, and a lot of ways I want to improve myself personally AND professionally. Establishing habits will be one way for me to get there. I’m still deciding whether I want to start another streak, but the main things I’ve been considering adopting as habits include:
- Getting plenty of sleep every night (Something I’ve been struggling with throughout the pandemic)
- Meditation (I know there are SO many ways this could help me)
- Classical Stretch (even though I run every day, I almost never stretch, and I’ve definitely gotten benefits from doing this, even somewhat sporadically, in the past)
I don’t want to overwhelm myself with trying to add too much at once, because I know I won’t stick with things if I feel that way. So, for now, I’m going to start with sleep. My goal will be to be in bed with the light off no less than seven and a half hours before my first alarm is set for. I don’t think this is going to be a streak–I don’t want to be stressed and unable to get to sleep because of it if, every once in a while, I don’t make it. But I’ve been hearing more and more about the importance of sleep, and I’m looking forward to feeling refreshed when I my alarm goes off instead of groggy. And I think that feeling will help provide me with more energy to start incorporating the other habits I want to establish into my routine.
To quote The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho (a book which I mentioned in a recent post that I wanted to read and, since, have read), “If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better.” I’m committed to continuing to improve the present so what comes later will be better than it would have been otherwise. So, here’s to the next 1000 days of running, and the next 62 days of writing. Here’s to getting more sleep. And here’s to 39…
growingmoxie.com 