{"id":2481,"date":"2015-03-10T05:08:45","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T05:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shakabrown.com\/home\/?p=2481"},"modified":"2015-03-10T20:01:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T20:01:52","slug":"the-most-important-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shakabrown.com\/home\/the-most-important-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0988\"A marathon. Wanting to do it is one thing. Preparing to do it, that\u2019s a whole \u2018nother animal. The schedule is pretty straight forward. Easy run, harder run, easy run, in the middle of the week. Then a really hard run on the weekend.
\nLast week\u2019s 16 miler was\u2026an experience. I got through my first 7 miles at a great pace. I didn\u2019t start to run\/walk until mile 8. On the return trip I plodded through 4 miles, then my phone died, and I did more a matrix-style run\/walk for the last bit. I mean I was moving slowly while the world was flying by.
\nThe weekend before it was 15 miles. Next weekend it\u2019s 12 miles. It\u2019s funny to think that I\u2019m really looking forward to running only 12 miles. When I did the half marathon in January, I crossed the finish line, and about 15 minutes later I got stabbed with an icepick. At least that\u2019s how I felt. I was on my back while Janie was finding a medic. They wanted me to walk to the first aid tent. Janie convinced them that having me walk anywhere was probably not best. Now I\u2019m looking at the calendar and thinking \u201cOh, just 12 miles! What a relief. I can go dancing that night!\u201d
\nThere are days when I miss a run. I missed last Thursday. No one is there to chastise me. I could take a week off, if I wanted to.
\nThe thing about all of it though, is that whether I do the run, or say I do the run, it doesn\u2019t matter because the day is coming. On April 26th I am going to start the race, and unless I stick to this regimen, I\u2019m might not finish it.\u00a0I’m hedging my bets by training for it.
\nWhen I went to Tampa, I tried to find the prettiest route to take for the 15 mile run. I was stressing over the condition of the roads. I wanted to know what neighborhood was decent. Finally I decided I was just going to do a 5 mile route 3 times; It was along the ocean, that\u2019s decent enough.
\nI woke up at 7am and it was pouring outside. I ended up in the gym, logging miles on the treadmill. When April 26th comes, I can\u2019t say \u201cI didn\u2019t follow the schedule because it was raining that day.\u201d I can\u2019t say \u201cI didn\u2019t do 15 miles because I couldn\u2019t find an ocean view.\u201d I will either be ready, or I won\u2019t.
\nI can’t\u00a0live by \u201cI didn\u2019t do it because _blank_\u201d. There\u2019s a million reasons to not<\/strong> do something. I don\u2019t go over reasons \u201cwhy not.\u201d It’s much more efficient to go over the reason why. I’ll take a million-to-one odds on that.
\nWhen push comes to shove, we do the things in order- from most important to least important. Things happen because we make them happen. Doing what I set out to do – that\u2019s most important to me.<\/p>\n

Find your most important; Leave behind anything that doesn\u2019t push you towards your most important. The distractions will disappear, and you will be left with a clear goal. You\u2019ll sleep better. You\u2019ll wake up ready to step into the world that you shape.
\nMy world begins tomorrow at 5am with a 4 mile jog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A marathon. Wanting to do it is one thing. Preparing to do it, that\u2019s a whole \u2018nother animal. The schedule is pretty straight forward. Easy run, harder run, easy run, … <\/p>\n

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