The unlived life

What a glorious Good Friday.

I think my cold is on its way out, and if I hadn't had a tight deadline this morning I would have loved to expand my mile-and-a-third into a two, three or even five-miler.

I read something that I really like in one of the many different books that I'm dipping in and out of at the moment, this one is "The War of Art - Winning the Inner Creative Battle" by Steven Pressfield. I'm reading it on the Kindle application on my iPhone, which I'm quite enjoying using.

The phrase that I like is "Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance".

I identified with this immediately.

For most of my adult life, this phrase was, and also felt very strongly that it was, an almost uncanny description of my life.

These days I wouldn't have said it was true, until when I thought about it a little more, I realised that, while not as extreme as it used to be, there is still some truth in this for me.

I remember when I wrote me very first coaching tip back in 2004, I titled it "If I'm doing what I love, how come it's scary" (I hadn't got the hang of shorter clearer titles in those days).

I had an expectation back then that when I'd been coaching for a while and felt that I'd really got it, then it wouldn't be scary.

Now I know that scariness is actually a measure of how well I'm doing. If I'm not scared, then I am too comfortable, I'm simply retreading the well-trodden path without thinking too much, I don't have the energy of pushing past my own boundaries.

Scariness is good, and should always be there to keep me on my toes.

But while I'm living much more of my unlived life now, there is still more of it as yet unlived. And resistance is absolutely what is stopping me living it.

In the last few days I have been becoming more aware of what I think this unlived part of my life is.

My next step is to recognise my resistance, challenge it head on, and welcome the extra scariness that will come with pushing past it.

As Steven Pressfield says, in another of his books that I'm reading, I have to "Do the Work"!

MapMyRun & Crowded House

My mile a day route has now been measured on MapMyRun at 1.34 miles, actually a little longer than I originally thought, which is a good thing.

MapMyRun is kind of a new discovery. I say kind of because I have looked at it before but never really used it. I have now downloaded the iPhone version onto my iPhone (strangely), and have also ordered an armband so that I can run with my iPhone. That should be interesting.

I have to mention that I went to see the fabulous Crowded House last night, not for the first time I might add, and they were superb. I was actually almost as sweaty as I am after a run. I absolutely loved it. If you get a chance, do go and see them.

Talking to myself

Yesteray I ran 10km for the first time in many months, probably six. It wasn't easy and yet it was also really enjoyable.

There is nothing like pushing myself, stretching myself (no, not that type of stretching - I'm terrible at doing that), challenging myself, with the wind in my hair, the sun on my face and body, and the sound of birdsong in my ears (as well as my own breathing and the occasional traffic noise when I venture near roads).

I also talk to myself out loud when I run. It could be the first, or possibly more advanced, sign of madness, but is a leftover from pre-iPhone times when I used to run with my mobile phone strapped to my arm, connected by earphones, recording my thoughts and ideas.

Note to self - I really should find a device that allows me to strap my iPhone to my arm so I don't look quite as demented when I'm out running in public.