How am I? I’m unstoppable.
I urge anyone feeling bad about themselves, or generally down-in-the-dumps to go on a ‘vision quest.’ In Native American culture, a vision quest is something a pubescent child would do to find their life goals. They might go off alone into the wilderness for a period of days and wait for a vision to show them who they are and what they should do—they don’t return to their tribe until they have found themselves.
Metaphorically speaking, I suggest the idea of a vision quest for women in particular by way of signing-up for an endurance event or some other kind of challenge. Pick your distance, pick your discipline, and start training. Get yourself a goal to work toward. I may not have met my initial goal of losing weight, but I will get there eventually. More importantly, I accomplished something that will stick with me for the rest of my life. I attended a boot camp of a triathlon—almost literally speaking—it took place on an army base!
The day after Partiot’s Day, I smiled and said 'good morning,' or nodded at all the uniformed army servicemen and women who silently watched over my newest vision quest. Other vision quests I've been on were childbirth, a marathon, and when I lived alone for the first time. In this vision quest, I thought about all the people who serve our country and fight for our freedom. In my darkest moments on the bike course, I thanked God for giving me the strength to do what I was doing, and the drive to keep moving forward for all the people who couldn’t do what I was doing, for whatever reason. I wore my American Stroke Association running cap, and thought about all the people I ran for when I did my marathon and half-marathon. I later was glad to be able to run (even slowly) after enduring the swim and bike portions of the race.
I never would have thought I could do a triathlon, even a short distance one. But I did. I swam 500 meters, I biked 14.7 miles, and then I ran 4.3 miles. I beat my personal goal time by about 5 minutes too. I am not a swimmer, but I can do a couple different strokes to stay afloat. I never thought myself much of a biker, I have a mountain bike I bought about 15 years ago, and retrofit with new road-friendly tires for this event--I got passed a lot by the road bikes. I’m not a competitive runner, but I grew up playing soccer, and have done running events in the past, so I know I’m relatively adept even if I’m slow by runner standards. I’m mediocre at best at all these, but I’ve got a desire to be involved and do something. I think everyone should do something. Maybe it would help quiet some of the complaining many people love to do so much and make people start finding solutions to problems.
Since completing the triathlon event this past weekend, my confidence has been soaring. I have a message for anyone who says, “I can’t”…get out of your own way. Get going, by baby steps, and you’ll get there. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, do something else. Challenging yourself is a way to make progress in your self image, and find how you can be unstoppable.
Christine Jeffries is a writer/editor for work and at heart, and lives in a home of testosterone with her husband and two sons. She started a women's group, The Wo-Hoo! Society, in the interests of friendship, networking and philanthropy. The group meets separately on a monthly basis in the Phoenix and Kansas City areas. Christine is interested in women's health and promoting strong women.