Overcoming

Ask yourself this:  are you more proud of the things you have ACCOMPLISHED, or the things you have OVERCOME?

• Overcoming the fear of the daily 30 mile drive three days per week to complete your child's Leukemia treatment.

• Overcoming the stress of working two part-time retail jobs while working with the bank over the missed mortgage payments from that job layoff last year.

• Overcoming the exhaustion of single parenthood: coming home from work to do dishes, laundry and kids homework--all whilst maintaining a "B" average to finish night school next year to get out of poverty.

Perhaps ACHIEVING and OVERCOMING are not different--but two sides of the same coin--finding and pushing through our limits.

Often, overcoming challenges, on the track, and in life, forces us to confront these limits and step beyond.  How often have you overcome a challenge, on the track, in school, at work, or with your family only to look back in awe how you made it?

But here is the BEST PART:  overcoming lets us experience...dare I say it...JOY.  That's right--JOY.  That unique destination reserved for those few who stayed course, persevered, to fight the good fight to victory.  It is also in this hollowed place where we receive the most valued of treasures:  the strength to carry on for the next fight...and share with others still fighting. 

AMJ