Butterscotch Baby Steps

Sweat dripped down my brow, soon engulfed in the SPF50 caked cracks of my skin. My bottle was empty, not even a drop of thirst-quenching water left.

27


"Soldier on? How!?" My hip tendons screamed, threatening to collapse with the slightest provocation. The horizon of green arbors flickered in the distance, blurred by the visible heat rising off the hot asphalt. Not even a glimpse of hope.

66



"You've Failed!" an inner voice screeched. "You expect to finish an entire marathon!?! When you can't even run fourteen miles? It's just too hard, James. Maybe you're just not meant to run a marathon... have you ever thought about how FAR 26 miles is?”

110
 
During marathon training there is a point in every run when your body stops producing endorphins, and all the motivation that is so easily accessible in small sessions leaves you utterly and completely void. You feel alone.

147

Thankfully my conscience, the size of a cricket, crushed under an upended smack to the shoulder. This was no time to determine if I had come down the right path.

"I can't go 2 more miles. I could barely walk five steps." I stammered.

"What about one step?" A new voice whispered from beneath, a sharp spear shattering the heat induced bog weighing on my mind.

213

"One; one step?" My toes tingled slightly as if to test the possibility of this theory. "I could do one step. Sure."

One.
 I mustered one step out of the Jell-O legs of mine.
One.
 I wondered what flavor Jello they’d be.
One.
 As long as they aren't butterscotch.
One.
Butterscotch Jell-O sounds gross.
One.
 Bill Cosby's dance moves were fantastic.
Done.

"Wait. What!?"

277


I had finished! Energy pumped through what I thought were dead and dying veins. As I started to gather myself together in my joyful triumph only one thought remained,the only one I could have mustered,

"How delicious would butterscotch Jell-O be right now?"

One seemingly meaningless step in any situation was the only way that we ever start to accomplish anything requiring determination. Learning to walk as a child, speaking a foreign language, talking about your problems with a friend, mastering multiplication tables, dealing with an unfriendly co-worker.

365

Sure, training continued to be an uphill struggle. Yet, every struggle had an ending. When I stumbled one step it was just that: one small failure. I could fix it. When I bounded forward in a lunge it was just that: one small achievement. I could harness it. One baby step at a time was all I had to focus on.

So how does one continue to pursue healthy eating habits, love for a foreign language, learn to journal daily, cook amazing meals, run 26 miles, cultivate meaningful relationships or have enough energy to sit down and write a 500 word blog post?

Tap into it through slow progression. Don't ever lose sight of where you have come from, where you are, and where you are going. One baby step at a time.