Fight Within Us - Battle With Our Mind

Today I got to lay my hands on a magazine - Infinithoughts. I was reading it for the first time, but I saw Mind written over it and started to go through it. It was amazing. I went through some of the pages and then came over to one experience written by one of the contributors. 

The contributor informed his family that he would be taking part in half marathon - 21 km stretch. This marathon was for raising fund for some NGO and he wanted to help the cause. His family suggested that if he wants to help, he can simply donate. There was no need to run the marathon. Especially when he has not practiced it at all. But in his mind, he had already prepared a plan to take part in the half marathon. Many of his colleagues and friends tried to dissuade him from running. But he had already accepted the challenge. There were still two months to go. There were challenges. He had not run more than 3-4 km at a stretch. 

Then later it was announced that his office had organized a Sports Day event just before the marathon day. This delighted his family as he was an active member in sports and would be very tired to get next day for marathon. But it was not to be. In excitement of running the half marathon, he did not get to sleep at all. The race started at 5 am and he was already up there in the race. He had run for 4 km when his knees started paining. His mind started to reason that this is the maximum that he has run. How can he go further? His legs gave up. He wanted to take a break. But he fully understood that if he took a break, probably he will not be able to run. He knew that it was the fight with the mind. He focused on the next step, next 1 km and doing so he completed  a landmark of 11 km. He was pleased.

Now, he had to run only 10 km to complete the race. He had won over its mind. He had run around 11 km when he had not crossed 4 km earlier. After walking for some distance, he again started to run and completed the 21 km line. He was satisfied to win a war against himself. 

Our life is similar. Many a times, it is not the situation, but our mind who puts limitation. And we believe our mind. As soon as we hear it, we start losing our war with it. It is at this point when you have to focus only on the next step and not on the full target. Each step will give you confidence to go up to the next step.