All Day Long

As I look back on the last four years (off and on) of trying to improve my health, I can remember the things that have inspired and motivated me. Sometimes it's a song lyric or beat, sometimes it's a saying, and sometimes it's an event.

I can remember having a head cold and thinking I couldn't go out and run, and then watching Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks play through an NBA Finals basketball game with similar symptoms; and I can remember getting off the couch after the game and going for a run. Nowitzki's incredible performance inspired me to get out and move.

I also found inspiration in the very first song that came up on my running playlist in 2011 when I first started running: "40" by U2. It's a song that has moved me since I first heard it back in the eighties, and it's a song about looking to a Power greater than yourself to pull you up from a pit of despair, and the lyrics are pretty much straight from Psalm 40:

I waited patiently for the Lord
And He inclined to me and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction
Out of the miry clay
And He set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm
He put a new song in my mouth
A song of praise to our God
Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord

Sometimes it's just a piece of a song that motivates me as I run, like "Every day, every hour; turn that pain into power" from the song "Superheroes" by The Script. Sometimes it's a combination of beat and lyrics, like "Marchin On" by OneRepublic -- there's no way I'm going to even think about giving up and walking when that song comes on Pandora.

During the short time that I have been doing half marathon training, a new phrase has been running through my mind, "All Day Long". This is a phrase that the Sensei at my son's karate dojo uses to inspire the participants during belt tests, and now it has become my slogan. All I have to do is find that right pace, breathe, and keep putting one foot in front of the other; and I feel like I could go all day long.

So, what motivates and inspires you? What helps you make it through when things get tough?