Book 334 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Focus and Endurance!

Book – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami

Book Description:

An intimate look at writing, running, and the incredible way they intersect, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is an illuminating glimpse into the solitary passions of one of our greatest artists. While training for the New York City Marathon, Haruki Murakami decided to keep a journal of his progress. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid recollections and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, here is a rich and revelatory work that elevates the human need for motion to an art form.

Reflection:

A writer and a runner sharing a memoir about writing and running…count me in!

Somehow, in the past few years, I’ve magically transformed into writer and a runner in my own life. It still blows my mind to type out those words and share them will others. However, it is true, and the data is there to back up the claim. For 987 consecutive days since my daughter was born, I’ve written all 987 days and have gone for run on at least 75% of them (I’ve done some workout on all the others).

Before I met Emilia, I couldn’t think of 2 activities that would describe Chris Sears less than writer or runner.

Why is that? Well, writers and runners are endurance athletes…I was a sprinter. I did everything fast, quick, and as explosive as my mind and body would allow me. I would red line my engine until I accomplished my goal and then I would collapse in exhaustion. This was my pattern throughout life. Whether it be in workouts, sports I played, school, or my professional life. I went HARD and then took as much time to recover as I could before mustering the energy to do it all over again.

I liked it that way. I loved the feeling of pushing my mind and body to the limits in short, intense spurts. On the flip side, humans that value endurance never made sense to me. I just didn’t get the appeal. Why torture yourself over long periods of time…what was the point? Running, in particular, wrapped up everything I hated about the idea of endurance. There is literally nowhere in the world I would rather NOT be than forcing myself to run long distances for no reason at all. I mean, how dumb can you be?

Then, I met a human being that showed me why endurance matters. Her name is Emilia Quinn Sears, and she is the ultimate endurance athlete that I have seen or will ever see in my life. Emilia didn’t just endure for fun, she only endured for what was most important to her in this world. For Emilia, that was a shot at life.

Watching Emilia from the side lines and seeing her incredible strength to fight day in and day out for what mattered most to her was the proverbial lightbulb moment for me to see why endurance matters if you want to live a meaningful life.

Following her example, I asked Emilia for her show me and she agreed to become my soul teacher. Bird by Bird, Emilia and I found ourselves reuniting at the keyboard as we wrote our thoughts each morning immediately followed by continuing our conversation out on the road as she slowly helped me to see what she magically knew from the moment she was born. With each passing day, Emilia has helped me to transform from a sprinter who only saw life as one big competition, to an endurance athlete that could care less about results and is more concerned with establishing a sustainable way of living and producing something of meaning while I still have time on this Earth.

The author, Haruki Murakami, shared that running is actually what taught him everything he needed to know about writing a novel. Through running, he discovered the key to producing anything of consequence in life is to find an activity you can focus intensely on for short periods of time each day and then the endurance to do it day in and day out for as long as this world will let you. Focus and Endurance are the foundational items that are needed to produce anything of meaning, to yourself and others, in this world.

I couldn’t agree more with the author. What I want to add here, is what Emilia taught me and what I’ve learned over these past few years. You can only find the ability to focus and endure, if, and only if, you are doing activities that align to what matters most to you in this world.

If you bring all those elements together, strap in because you are on your way for one hell of an incredible, meaningful, and fulfilling adventure.

Question: Are you channeling your energy into the right activities?

---

Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami