Overcoming rarely feels triumphant because that moment of reaching the top of the mountain is quite brief compared to the time it took to get there. What makes that moment lasting is the evidence that one’s resilient spirit creates when it keeps moving forward, keeps trying, and keeps going time and time again.
Back in 2016, I was up late one night doing my taxes last minute in order to beat the deadline. The clock read 1 am when my head finally hit the pillow and I thought about canceling my morning training run to catch up on sleep. But when the alarm rang at 6 am, I got up. It was hard. Really hard.
I showed up at the bottom of the tower, a 5k+ hiking trail that went straight up and then, straight down, shivering. I remember my arms were crossed and my hands were jammed into my armpits. While there might have been a smile on my face, I’m sure the rest of my body language read “I’m very very uncomfortable and I’d like to go back inside my car.” I jokingly tried to entice my training partner buddy for that day, Singh, to do a run on the treadmill at our local gym, you know, in a temperature-controlled building.
"But this is tougher, Rae." He said.
Dammit. Beyond stating the obvious, the run was also part of our training schedule. We had goals and the way to them was through this. I know what he was trying to get at. We had to do hard things to accomplish hard goals.
One of my inner thoughts? Oh man, this was gonna suck. Plus, we were trying to run it fast so we could make it to a cycle class that our favorite instructor, Michele, was teaching.
3… 2… 1.
We started uphill. I tried to find a good rhythm to fall into. As the ascent began, something clicked within me. To this day I attribute it to grace. The kind of grace that we find unexpectedly, not because we deserved it, but because we needed it and it was already there for us to receive. My legs took off. I tapped into the unseen energy of that morning and not only did I get to the top, but I also beat my previous time by 2 minutes. Two whole minutes. I was floored.
It brought to light a prayer that I had done recently where I was reminded about the power of habits. I was reminded of something I told Marie, my client, who had multiple sclerosis (MS). That when she falls and gets back up, even when it's really hard to do, even when it takes her a long time, she is building a memory of getting up with MS. Her brain needs that. It already knows how to function and succeed without MS. That was the past.
Today, there is an opportunity to learn and relearn how to struggle and succeed in the current seasons we are in. This is how we make progress going forward because there is more than just one mountain in our lives. They come throughout all the seasons in our lives. Sometimes the only way past them is through them. And when we need that something to get us going through them, we can all tap into something we already have - the truth that we have already overcome.
So on this climb, the habit of climbing mountains even when I didn't feel like it or it's not the best circumstances, began to power me uphill. Then, a deep well of gratitude began to emerge from the reservoir of memories of falling down and getting back up. Yes, I did get to the other side of a devastating divorce. Yes, I did get to the other side of a career change in my 30s. And yes, I did just get out of bed that morning when everything logical within me said just text it in and ask for a raincheck. Mountains, after all, come in different shapes and sizes. So this moment where I have to put another foot in front of the other uphill? I can do this moment. I've done it before. I can do it again today.
Y'all, we all have those moments. We have all had those mountains. In some of our hardest moments or trying times in our lives, there were invitations to build on the habit of overcoming and guess what - we've all said 'Yes.'
When we are in the process of overcoming, it can rarely feel triumphant because what it more closely feels like is a whole lot of effort and work for some unseen hope that we will get to the top. Reaching the top of the mountain is actually quite a brief moment in time compared to the time it took to get there. What makes that moment lasting, completely glorious, and a permanent win is the evidence that our resilient spirits create when it keeps moving forward, keeps trying, and keeps going time and time again.
What are the mountains in your past that you have overcome? Are you in an uphill climb today? Wherever you may be, is an opportunity to build on our habit of overcoming., to add another day of evidence to our truth. We are resilient human beings, made for success because we can move through the struggle. In my life today, the next step and all the foreseeable ones look like they will require a whole lot of effort and work. Meet you at the top?