Every race should really be thought of as a training run, an effort done not merely for itself but for the long-term benefits: the development of strength, endurance, character, willpower ... the overall self-improvement ... the memories that this action will some day become. Today's race is for the future.

And contrariwise, every training run should really be thought of as a race, performed not for some fuzzy indefinite payoff but for the immediate reward: a striving for excellence in the moment ... a personal best effort to overcome all barriers ... a total immersion in the human struggle to unify body, mind, and spirit. Today's training run is for the now.

And so it is with every peak experience of life, and every quiet hour in between ....

(see also BennettOnStoicism (29 Apr 1999), MostImportant (16 May 2002), SelfImprovement (29 Jul 2002), MyOb (18 Aug 2002), ...)

TopicRunning - TopicLife - TopicPhilosophy - 2003-01-25

(correlates: NewYearResolution, LessMore, StrangeLoops, ...)