Go big or go home
We’ve all heard this little ditty before. Usually in relation to a game or competition or a big venture of sorts.
Go big or go home.
There’s an essence of this saying that I like – if you’re going to do something, do it fully. Give it your all.
What I don’t love is the suggestion that anything less than your fullest is not worth doing at all.
I was at the reservoir recently (a place you’ve heard me mention if you’re a frequent reader) going around the trail, and I usually have a similar thought partway through, which is that when I was in high school, I could run most of it with just two or three spots where I’d slow down to a walk to catch my breath.
I mean, of course. I was in high school. I played soccer two hours a day and had the energy that comes with a youthful body and the carefree life of still being taken care of.
Now, I jog parts of the reservoir but nowhere near what I used to. And each time I slow from a jog to a walk, I think “I used to be able to do more than this.” When I think about jogging a little further, it hardly feels worth it because I know I can’t do what I used to.
But the other day I tried a different tact. As I was jogging and starting to get winded, and the place where I usually start to walk was approaching, I thought – OK, I know I can do more and it’s not the same as what I could do in high school, but what if I kept going, just a little slower? Like almost a walk, but still more than walking.
Slowing down just that little bit (as opposed to all the way to a walk) allowed me to keep my “running” up for far longer than I had done at the reservoir in YEARS. In fact, it may have even been the same distance I used to run in high school.
But that part didn’t matter to me. What mattered was finding that spot between going big and going home and realizing…that counts too.
Lafayette reservoir
