“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
I have no idea who said this first. But I saw it on a friend’s facebook the other day and I loved it. Because it’s true. If you want anything to stick long-term, wether it’s an exercise routine, a challenging career or the basic ability to keep it together, you’ll need support. You’ll need to go together.
That’s why people climb mountains in teams. They wouldn’t survive on their own. Climbers need someone to recognise the signs & symptoms of hypothermia when they are too delirious to see it themselves. Someone to make decisions when they are no longer capable. Someone to guide them down when they can’t see the route, no matter how hard they look.
And while our own goals might not be as exceptional as getting to the top of Everest, we still need people to lean on. People who recognise when we’re not well, when we’re pushing ourselves to far, when we’ve lost sight of what really matters. And perhaps that brutally honest friend who recognises that we’ve ignored the alarm clock in favour of a lie-in one time too many…..
In an ideal world, I would have encountered this saying back in 2007, when I attempted the Paris marathon. I started with my sister. We hadn’t trained together, but had similar target times. It was Spring and should’ve been a nice, cool day. But Paris had other ideas. It hit record temperatures for April – it was scorching! The water stations were running out of sponges to cool off with and the road was radiating. But it was exciting and I felt good. So good, in fact, that at the 10km mark I didn’t want to run at my sister’s pace anymore. So I said goodbye and ran away.
Bad move. The heat took its toll. By 30km I felt terrible. By 35km I was trying to bounce back by shovelling in nutrition, but it was too late. I was zig-zagging across the road. At 37.5km I fainted in the gutter. I did finish the marathon….. but in the back of an ambulance. Which doesn’t really count. My sister finished, just 10 minutes slower than the time I wanted. Lesson learned – going alone is very rarely the answer.
Pssst – If you’re looking for a super-sized support crew as summer approaches, why not join us? I promise not to ditch you in the early stages. You’ll have fun & varied exercise plans for every day in September. We’ll motivate you and answer your questions along the way. You can enjoy healthy, tasty recipes for every meal. And you’ll be supporting others, through the donation of all profits to On the Line – Australia’s leading provider of remote counselling services. Spring launches in just 10 days, so sign-up now.
