NEVER QUIT

I've never considered myself a quitter.  If I have my mind set on something, there are very few things that will slow me down, let alone deter my course.  That said, it's not always easy.
People ask me all the time if I have always been active.  By-and-large, yes. But it's not just because it's habit our routine, it's because of how it makes me feel.  I know that nearly 100% of the time I will feel better afterwards, and that is what gets me out the door.  If I'm not having a good day or just don't have much energy, I make a deal with myself to at least do my planned warm-up and if I'm not feeling better then I probably wouldn't get much out of a workout anyway and I can turn around and go home.  Do you know how many times I've turned around?  Only once that I can remember.
Yes, I can usually muster up the courage to get out the door.  But that's not always the hard part.
Sometimes the hard thing for me is not feeling 100% once I'm already 1/2 way thru a workout and finding the strength to keep going.  Training for endurance events gives me a lot of alone time with my thoughts (scary).  Last week I was in the middle of a good "swim focus week" and during one of my workouts my pace seemed nearly impossible to hold on to, but I wasn't slowing down.  Learning from some experiences this past year, I told myself to "relax", "not every day is going to be perfect" and "just being there shows I am not a quitter and there is no way I'm letting myself get out of the pool defeated".  So, I swam.  As the set went on, it just felt harder.  Finally, the last 2 x 100s were my fastest of the day!  Ha!  Just think, if I would have quit, I never would have had that victory!
Yet again today, I was faced with a massive obstacle.  Head wind.  As I headed out on my 3 1/2 hour ride, I knew that I felt WAY too good going up hill and I would pay for it as soon as I turned around.  Sure enough, I turned around and it felt like I was spinning in place!  I told myself there has to be a lesson in this.  So, I put my phone away and kept spinning, knowing that I could not waste precious energy on frustration or I could likely never get home.  It ended up taking me about the same amount of time to get back, which left me about 1/2 hour left...and I was starving.  NO Sarah, now is not the time to give up!  Ok, ok.  I took 2 bites of my Powerbar and headed out on a short loop around my house...that I just rode by (ugh).  Still pushing hard into the headwind, I was feeling like I had not made a very good choice.  Finally, the last 10 minutes I actually found a tail wind again!! AND wouldn't you know it, the SUN came out.  WHAT!?!?  Thank you guardian angels!
Even though I never did quit, sometimes I do question if all this training is worth it.  I believe it is.
Believe in yourself.  Don't panic if things aren't going your way.  Most of all, don't give up on yourself or you will never know what you are capable of.

Don't be me.

At one point or another, I think all or most of us, have looked at someone else and thought, why can't I be more like "them"!?!?  I knew these thoughts had power over me for a long time, but I didn't realize how powerful they were until someone said them to me. 
I was encouraging someone who seemed very excited to talk about triathlon, to actually do one, and they said they didn't want to because they knew they would never be like me.  My response caught me off guard, I was insulted.  They had discounted what I was saying, something I do all the time.  Ouch!
I truly believed they were MORE than capable of doing exactly what I said they could do.  I believed they were capable of MORE than they may ever know.  I don't encourage people to do things so they can be like me, I want them to know I believe in them. 
Believe people when they believe in you.