Keeping a record

When I was a senior in high school there was a girl that told me that she had written about me in her journal. The was the impetus that started the ball rolling that has made a huge part of my life and that is record keeping. Because of this girl, Theresa, I was inspired to start writing in my journal. I began to write every Sunday.

After church I would sit down and review the week. I would evaluate my efforts. If I had had any races I would record the splits and overall times. Of course any significant event was written in too. Journal writing/record keeping really helped me to know my own self.

We live with ourselves. We spend more time with ourselves than any other person. You would think we would know ourselves pretty dang good, but my experience has been the opposite. I spend so much time THINKING I know myself well that I don’t spend the time to actually search inside to know what is really going on.

Keeping a record of some sort helps us see progress. For me progress is motivating. Becoming a better person, mastering myself and my feelings, running faster times each year. Those kinds of things tell me that I’m becoming better, I’m improving. As I’m writing this I think there may be people who say, “Well, why do you need to progress? Isn’t it just as good to survive? To get by, relax and enjoy life?” So I thought about that…

For me the more I know the more I can help people. A doctor for example has to study a ton. Lots of school plus residency and then he or she goes on if desired and specializes in something specific like rheumatology for example. Why? Why do they need to know so much? Why do they need to have learned so much? So they can help people the best possible. That’s why many school districts will offer teachers incentives to go back to school and get master’s and doctorate degrees. They know that with more knowledge and more progression the better someone can perform.

Keeping a record is something that helps me run fearless. I can watch myself progress and it's inspiring. No matter what you do keeping a record of the things that happen will help in a myriad of ways. Have a good day and run fearless!