Jillian, Sunny, Running, and Your Whole Life...

Today's post comes from a few assumptions:

1) Biggest Loser is the greatest show ever to hit TV (even better than Seinfeld and maybe one day I'll delve into why)

2) I run, therefore, I am

3) Jillian Michaels is my favorite trainer in the world.

Hang with me for a couple of minutes and I promise to show you something that amounts to way more than a TMZ article about what happened on that one show with that girl in that place...

I'm finally getting around to reading Born to Run. I love it. It rouses my soul in all the right ways... but one passage stood out to me today, especially after Jillian's talk with Sunny on last night's episode of Biggest Loser:

"Perhaps all our troubles--all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome--began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way."  -Born to Run, Chapter 15

Sunny was struggling with living up to the expectations she believed her parents had for her to become a doctor.  Runners, more than any other athletes, it seems, struggle on a daily basis to deal with injuries or to avoid them altogether. Most of the people you know, athlete or not, live every day feeling like there's some kind of monkey on their back. A struggle with morality, the bossman, illness, destructive relationships, addictions, terrible self-image,...the list goes on, ad nauseum. 

Is this passage from my current read onto something? Compare it to the following:

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." - Apostle Paul, Philippians Chapter 4

To me, these two passages clearly echo one another.  What would the world be like if people didn't spend so much time focusing on what not to do, and instead spent their energy on doing what they should? What if the people you know quit talking about all the things you shouldn't do and began encouraging you to do what was good for you? What if you quit kicking the living crap out of yourself for all the mistakes in your past and began finding joy in all the positive things you could fill your day with? 

Is this ringing a bell in your heart? It does in mine. Make today the day you shift your momentum. Roll that big rock the other way. Quit saying "no" to all the crap and start saying "yes" to all the things that can fill your heart and soul with joy.