How are those New Year’s resolutions going?
Given them up yet? Maybe, like me you haven’t even started them yet. My resolutions for 2019 are a long list. Realistically, I probably won’t call my parents every week, prepare all my office lunches in advance on a Sunday evening, or listen to a TED Talk every week, but there are a few things that I really do want to achieve this year. One of them is to get into climbing, it crops up each year and I do go sporadically, but I want to go regularly. I want to get good at it. This goal is partly fuelled by my addiction to climbing books, films and blogs, especially reading about the insanely incredible Free Solo climber Alex Honnold.
Also on my list are: experience a new country, run somewhere new, run 100km, organise a running trip in the Peloponnese mountain region in Greece. If you hadn’t guessed I am into running.
Challenges. Experiences.
These are the concepts that keep pushing me on and keep me motivated. I think for so many of us, we are realising the importance of experiencing life. Yes, we can work 20-hour days, earn sh*t loads of money, and be chronically stressed, but that is not experiencing life. Not in the way I mean anyway. For many of us, it is now less about buying ‘things’, and more about having experiences.
I like to add an element of challenge to my experiences. I want to experience training for, and running a 100km. Having that physical and mental challenge is what keeps me motivated. At the start of this, I said I hadn’t started my resolutions yet. That is not quite true. I certainly haven’t run a 100km, but I have signed up for the Edinburgh 24 race where I think 100km is achievable and I have started the training. Along the way, I have included other races for training and will be running in new places for me, such as the Lake District. Another resolution in progress.
Also very soon, I am about to tick one of my resolutions off the list completely. In a couple of weeks’ time, I am heading to the Arctic to join one of the treks that Breaking Strain organises. I am very excited, if not incredibly anxious about the cold weather. I know I am fit enough, but my nose was freezing just walking to the office this morning!
So actually my resolutions are not shaping up too badly; well the fun ones anyway. I reckon life is here for us to experience as much we can. I think it is easy to forget everything we can do and stay focused on our own little world. At Breaking Strain we are all about the challenges and experiences. It's what we thrive one and what we are passionate about sharing through our races and overseas treks.
Maybe it’s time to branch out...
...find a new challenge, get outside your comfort zone, go somewhere new?
What are you waiting for? #weareBSE
