it's not about running

my reading note for future review：

☆it's my favourite


1.Right now i am aiming at increasing the distance i run, so speed is less of an issue, As long as i can run a certain distance, that's all i care about.


2.To keep on going you have to keep up the rhythm. This is important for long-term projects. Once you set the pace, the rest will follow.


3. I'm much more interested in whether i reach the goal i set for myself.


4.Even if he does't break the time he'd hoped for, as long as he has the sense of satisfaction at having done his very best---and, possibly, having made some significant discovery about himself in the process---then that in itself is an accomplishment, a positive feeling he can crazy about over the the next race.



5.I am not great runner, by any means. I am at ordinary-or perhaps more like mediocre level. but that's not the point. The point is whether or not i improved over yesterday.


6.Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.


7.i am the kind of person who has to totally commit to whatever i do. i just couldn't do something clever like writing a novel while someone else ran the business. I had to give it everything i had. If i failed, i could accept that. but i knew that if i did things half heartedly and they didn't work out, i would always have regrets.

8.Giving up smoking was a kind of natural result of running everyday The natural desire to run even more bacame a powerful motivation for me to not go back to smoking, and a great help in overcoming the withdrawal symptoms.



9. From elementary school up to college. i was never interested in things i was forces to study. i told myself it was something that had to be done, so i wasn't a total slaker and was able to go on the college. but never once did i find studying exciting.


☆10. If something interested me, i could study it at my own pace and approach it the way i liked, i was pretty efficient at acquiring knowledge and skills. It takes a lot of time to acquire a skill this way, but what you learn sticks with you.


11.When you are young , you really need to prioritize in life, figuring out in what order you should divide up your time and energy. If you don't get that sort of system set by a certain age, you will lack focus and your life will be out of balance.


12.The more i ran, the more my physical potential was revealed.


13.the only way to understand what's really fair is to take a long-range view of things.


14. Life is bascially unfair. But even in a situation that is unfair, it's possible to seek out a kind of fairness. That might take time and energy.And maybe it won't seem to be worth all that. it's up to each individual to decide whether or not it is.


☆15.Human beings naturally continue doing things they like,and they don't continue what they don't like. something close to will does play a small part in that.but no matter how strong will a person has,if it;s an activity he doesn't really care for,he won't keep it up for long.Even if he did, it wouldn't be good for him


16. The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school.


17.Muscles are hard to get and easy to lose. Fat is easy to lose and hard to lose. A painful reality, but a reality all the same.


☆18.Noboday is going to win all the time. Still, i certaily don't want to keep making the same mistakes over and over. Best to learn from my mistakes and put that lession into practice the next time around.


☆19. If i used being busy as an excuse not to run, i would never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All i can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.


☆20.Fortunately, these two displines---focus and endurance--are different from talent,since they can be acquired and sharpened through trainning. And gradually you will expand the limits of what you are able to do. /// Add a stimulus and keep it up. And repeat. Patence is a must in this process, but i guarantee the result will come.

☆21They have to train themselves to improve their focus,to increase their endurance.In a certain extent they're forced to make these qualities stand in for talent. And while they are getting by one those, they may actually discover real , hidden talent within them. It;s a lucky thing. but what made this good fortune possible was all the training they did that gave them strength to keep on digging.


☆22.Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits:that's the essence of running, and a mataphor for life.


☆23. If something is worth doing, it's worth giving it your best--or in some cases beyond your best.


24.my legs had a mind of their own. I had plenty of desire to run, but any legs had their own opinion about this.


25.If i were a living person of blood and flesh, i would have collapsed form the pain.


26.No matter how slow i might run, i wasn't about to walk. That was the rule. Break one of my rules once, and i am bound to break anymore.


27.The end of the race is just a temporary marker without much significance. It's the same with life. An end point is simply set up as a temporary marker, or perhaps as an indirect metaphor for the fleeting nature of existence.


28.Most of the fault is ascribed to global warming. What the word needs is a set villain that people can point at and say: It's all your fault.


29.In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain


☆30.What i mean is , i didn't start running because somebody asked me to become a ruuner. Just like i didn't become a novelist because someone asked me to. I have always done whatever i felt like doing in life. people may try to stop me. and convince me i am wrong, but i won't change.

31.How is this any different from pouring water in an old pan with a tiny hole in the bottom.


☆32.This might be similar to practicing drumming. You're made to practice bass drum patterns only, day after day. Then you spend days on just the cymbals, then just the tom tom. Monotonous and boring for sure,but once if all falls together you get a solid rhythm. In order to get there you have to stubbornly, rigorously, and very patiently tighten all the screws of each individual part.


This takes time, of course, but sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut.



★33.Whether it's good for anything or not, cool or uncool, in the final analysis what is most important is what you can't see but can feel in your heart. To be able to grasp something value, sometimes you have to perform seemingly inefficient acts. But even activities that appear fruitless don't necessarily end up so.


☆34. One by one, i will face the tasks before me and complete them as best i can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the horizon(scenery) as far ahead as i can.