This week I’d like to feature an excerpt from a new book, “Ten Marathons” by my friend Doug Schneider. It is a fantastic book for those who love a great life story, told in a humorous yet insightful manner. This book will not only make you feel happy but will help you understand how success depends on facing adversity and then overcoming it. It will entertain and motivate. Whether you’re a marathoner or a couch potato, you will be deeply moved by Ten Marathons. Doug is not only a successful executive, entrepreneur and roadrunner, but he is a philosopher who understands what it takes to live successfully in today’s complicated world.
Ten Life Lessons from Ten Marathons
- “We do better when we honor our limits instead of fighting against them. At some point in life, most of us need to deal with the fact that we will never be famous and perhaps also not as rich as we’d like to be. We all need to learn that we aren’t ever going to get everything we want in life, and to learn to accept that…somehow.”
- “Gratitude has turned out to be more important than I ever thought it was. Small things—like what we do with today—have turned out to be a bigger deal than I ever thought. Maybe the small things are in fact the things that matter most in life.”
- “We all need to fight the good fight, in our own way.”
- “Some people are happy as long as they have a to-do list in front of them; it doesn’t matter that much what’s on it.”
- “Running also teaches you to deal with adversity. Much of what happens to us in life is not of our choosing. It’s a myth to think otherwise. Even the luckiest among us encounter unplanned events where something important has gone horribly wrong. When we think others lead charmed lives, this is mostly because we don’t know much about them.”
- “There are many philosophies of life, many possible ways to look at the world. But in the most rudimentary form, the one that makes the most sense to me is simply to keep going—to get back up every time life knocks you down—and to stay interested; see the possibilities of the world. The essential thing to learn in life is that you are more resilient than you ever thought.”
- “Learning how to love a place for the first time, nothing can quite match that feeling.”
- “If you keep getting back up and stay interested, anything is possible. There are always more hills to climb, and your reward for getting over the last one will be the chance to climb another.”
- “Sometimes the way to wholeness is to let go and subtract things from your life, rather than just trying to cram more in.”
- “There is much to sort out in this world. It can be a complicated place. Mostly, with a little help from your friends, you need to sort it out for yourself. Only you can find your trail. No one else can tell you how to live your life, or should.”
- “We do better when we honor our limits instead of fighting against them. At some point in life, most of us need to deal with the fact that we will never be famous and perhaps also not as rich as we’d like to be. We all need to learn that we aren’t ever going to get everything we want in life, and to learn to accept that…somehow.”
- “Gratitude has turned out to be more important than I ever thought it was. Small things—like what we do with today—have turned out to be a bigger deal than I ever thought. Maybe the small things are in fact the things that matter most in life.”
- “We all need to fight the good fight, in our own way.”
- “Some people are happy as long as they have a to-do list in front of them; it doesn’t matter that much what’s on it.”
- “Running also teaches you to deal with adversity. Much of what happens to us in life is not of our choosing. It’s a myth to think otherwise. Even the luckiest among us encounter unplanned events where something important has gone horribly wrong. When we think others lead charmed lives, this is mostly because we don’t know much about them.”
- “There are many philosophies of life, many possible ways to look at the world. But in the most rudimentary form, the one that makes the most sense to me is simply to keep going—to get back up every time life knocks you down—and to stay interested; see the possibilities of the world. The essential thing to learn in life is that you are more resilient than you ever thought.”
- “Learning how to love a place for the first time, nothing can quite match that feeling.”
- “If you keep getting back up and stay interested, anything is possible. There are always more hills to climb, and your reward for getting over the last one will be the chance to climb another.”
- “Sometimes the way to wholeness is to let go and subtract things from your life, rather than just trying to cram more in.”
- “There is much to sort out in this world. It can be a complicated place. Mostly, with a little help from your friends, you need to sort it out for yourself. Only you can find your trail. No one else can tell you how to live your life, or should.”