Lately, it’s seems as though I’ve been treading water. While training for a 50 miler and trying to plan ahead for what I hope are some strong marathons later in the fall, running has become less of a hobby and more of a part time job (literally, clocking part-time job hours between running, strength training, stretching, and rolling).
Personally, I felt like friendships and relationships were slipping away. Professionally, I found my mind elsewhere during important meetings. Mentally, I was a bit of an emotional cupcake. I hit the “wall” when I was on a 90 minute flight last week and went nearly catatonic when the wifi went down (I was writing 4 separate work e-mails, planning out my miles and strength training for the next week, scheduling a farmers market date with a friend, and messaging my brother the dates I’d hoped to visit).
I was in serious need of an adjustment and out of nowhere, that quote: “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything,” popped into my head.
What’s your mantra lately?
I pulled out my good old fashioned planner and a pen and got to work – listing out everything I had on my plate. I asked myself two questions: 1) Do I have to do this? 2) Do I want to do this? If I wavered the slightest on question #2, it was out! SAYONARA. ADIOS. Ain’t nobody got time for that…
Friend working on a new project? I want in! Opportunity to get on a sponsored relay team? Sign me up now! You wrote a new blog post? Must read now! This is my recipe for serious burnout – so I promised myself that whenever something crossed my path, I would ask myself those two questions and trust my instincts.
I also started to set priorities, delegate, and rethink my training.Prioritize (and Don’t Apologize)
Weekly, monthly, daily I set my priorities and stick with them. If your priorities are set and something comes up – your auto-response shouldn’t be to apologize. If “I’m sorry” is your default, scrub it from your vocabulary. Guilt is exhausting, which means you have even less energy for the things that matter most.
Empower Someone
Delegation is hard – empowering someone is not. Ok, it’s technically the same thing…but it sounds so much better. The next time you have a project or something on your to do list that doesn’t require 100% of your attention, consider empowering someone to take on that responsibility. Take the time to show them what you’re looking for, set expectations and benchmarks early on, and let ‘em go!
Are you good at letting go?
Training Smarter (sometimes Harder)
Your workouts can’t be fast and long and short and easy. It’s impossible. Go into every run with a purpose in mind – is it a tempo run? Is it an easy run? Are you recovering or heading out just to keep the legs limber?
You can do any workout over the course of a training cycle – but you can’t do everything in one run. Plan your training with purpose or go out and just do what feels right. If you’re constantly running to best your last workout, you’re going to get injured. It’s a FACT. Look it up.
Finding a training plan and laying it out over the course of a training cycle is a great way to make sure you’re getting in all of your necessary workouts. Training groups and social media can offer meaningful support and organized workouts. Better yet? Find a coach who will kick your butt and push you to stay on plan.
You’re in control – in a world of possibility we want to do all of the things! Just remember, that you can do ANYTHING, but you can’t do everything.