Lean Forward

Running just may have saved my life.

I was home-schooled until the 9th grade. Think about that statement for a minute – I spent 14 years of my life in my home, with my brothers and sisters, only leaving the house to go play sports. I believe that doing this made me miss critical social development skills that I didn’t develop until later on in my life. But hindsight is 20/20, and I would not be where I am at today if that was different, so I am thankful for that. But regardless of that position – it was rough.

Going from homeschool 1st though 8th grade, then to freshmen in high school isn’t exactly a smooth transition. I had no friends. I had no skills to make friends. I had no idea how I was going to do 4 years of this. The first year was a tough one for me. I had one saving grace: running.

I had a science teacher that coached cross country. He recruited me for the team and I thought – sure – what do I have to lose. Baseball season wasn’t for a while, maybe I could get into better shape for it. Plus – it wasn’t like my social life was glowing. So I went for it – more to kill time and hopefully meet a few people. Little did I know I was hooked. I was slow, but I was hooked. Running became my meditation and still is to this day. The joke is always my meditation – my joy – is your punishment. Even today, if I am stress, if I need to think, if I need to relax, if I need to clear my head, I run. I ran the morning of my wedding. I ran the day I found out I was going to be a dad. I ran the day my son was born. Running is an important part of my life, as odd as that may sound.

My high school cross country coach was one of the most epic people I have ever met in my life. He created the desire in me to be a coach, change lives and move people the way he did every day (Thank you, Coach Connolly). It wasn’t that he was motivating (but he was), he was a smart runner. Coach Con knew about form and ensuring that when you run, you don’t waste energy. You stay strong, and you stay relaxed. To this day, even if I don’t lace up the shoes for a while, I can put a few miles in without any trouble because of my form.

Olean forwardne of the biggest form pieces I took away was to lean forward.

When you run, you want to have a slight lean forward. This helps with momentum, to keep a quick pace and when you get tired, it helps to put one foot in front of the other because your feet want to catch you. It also helps with push and landing on the forefoot vs the heal – reducing injury. It is just a more efficient way to run.

I was recently running, working through getting kinks out in my form, and telling myself to lean forward. I got back into my form and I was thinking a lot about leaning forward and I had a moment of brilliance on how we all should lean forward.

LEAN FORWARD IN LIFE

Life is a scary son-of-a-bitch. We have no idea what is going to happen next and that scares most people. How you manage the fear, the unknown, the drawbacks, the setbacks and whatever else comes up in your life determines your level of success.

If you want to live life fully, lean forward, run fast and don’t be afraid of what’s around the corner because if you run fast enough, you are going to run over whatever gets in the way.

Sadly, most don’t even come close to this. Most slowly walk up to the corner, very carefully look around it, and if they see something that will block their route, they turn and find another route.

Most aren’t ready to run forward. It is extremely hard to go from being scared on what’s around the corner to hustling around the corner embracing whatever comes your way. This is where LEANING FORWARD can help.

Leaning forward means you keep moving forward. When you get tired, you still move forward. It is the “slow and steady wins the race” idea. And it is better than finding another route. Finding another route means you aren’t moving forward. If you aren’t moving forward, you are either moving sideways or worse yet, moving backward, neither of which will take you on where you need to go. You need to move forward if you want to get anything accomplished in life.

Leaning forward can get you there. When you lean forward in life, you are able to take on whatever is around the corner.

LEAN FORWARD.

And go for a run.