Taking a Lesson from The Gladiator

One of my favorite quotes of all time is in the movie The Gladiator with Russel Crowe.  Russel's General character, Maximus, has just been asked to do something "for Rome" and for "Duty-sake" which will conceivable delay his going home to see his family whom he hasn't seen for years.  It is his hearts desire to see his family again, and he is struggling with the decision of whether to say "Yes" to the Caesar's request.  In contemplation, he has the following dialogue with his servant/valet Cicero.

Maximus: You don't find it hard to do your duty?
Cicero: Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to.

I found that for the last 13 miles of my Paris Marathon my brain AND my emotions were arguing with each other for who had the BEST reason to quit.  Therefore, my brain AND my emotions were BOTH on board with me quitting, and were just oozing with reasons that it would just make sense to do so.  While they were battling it out, coming up with compelling reason after reason both appealing to my rational sense of logic AND my emotions, I just kept DOING.  I just kept moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other foot, forward motion, step after step after step towards my goal. 

And it struck me.  I had been in "Marathon training" long before I was ACTUALLY literally IN Marathon training.  How?  By attaining and maintaining optimal health through TSFL. 

Modifying my BEHAVIOR to move towards a pre-determined GOAL despite daily fluctuations in environment, emotions, or sometimes even LOGIC was something I learned how to do consistently before I even bought my first pair of running shoes.

Some people say "I could never do what you did," with reference to the Marathon training.  Some people say "I could never do what you did," with reference to losing 150 pounds and attaining optimal health.

But, really, they are one and the same thing.  Making a fundamental decision to DO something which takes daily action and discipline, and sometimes involves setting our immediate WANTS aside for the longer term GOAL of what our daily action, over time, will achieve for us.

I suppose some would not choose to do that.  But I'm so glad I did!