Hills.

This hill starts here and continues around that corner. Awesome. This picture kind of doesn't do it justice.

Diane couldn't run with me this morning, and since I'm really trying to do better with my exercising and nutrition, I forced myself to go running by myself.

I chose to run outside because I pretty much hate running on the treadmill. Even if I watch something on Netflix while I'm running, I hate every. single. second. I'd much rather run outside because it helps me clear my head and get in some great thinking time.

So I'm so glad I pulled myself out of bed at 7 and hit the pavement.  I did miss Diane's company (I'd rather run with her any day than run alone!), and it was much more difficult to solve the problems of the world on my own, but it was pretty awesome. And I must say that I love my running playlist. It soooo helped me this morning. The power of music... :)

When I set out on my run, I was just going to see how it went. But as I ran through my neighborhood, one thought kept creeping into my head: "run that big hill!" I told myself, "NO!!!" because I haven't run that big hill in a very long time. And who wants to knowingly subject herself to that kind of torture? Well, I guess I did, because I ran it. All the way to the top. And then I ran back down (to take a picture, of course), and I ran up it again. I must've been a glutton for punishment this morning. Now to be honest, I did have to walk a few mailboxes in between so I could actually breathe, but that's okay.

As I was running up the hill, I was reminded of something I'd forgotten: if I looked to the top of the hill, that hill seemed so steep and my head kept telling me to quit. But if I looked at the pavement right in front of me, that hill seemed to shrink to a manageable size and it was so much easier to keep going.

It's kind of like with other things in life. When I had a huge paper to do when I was in school, if I thought about the whole paper, I was soooo completely overwhelmed. Could I find the research I needed, how would I do the introduction and conclusion (conclusions are the hardest thing for me), how would I organize it, would it be any good, etc. Totally overwhelming. But if I just started with baby steps--say a little prayer (the most important baby step!), look for research, read through the research, take notes on index cards (yes, totally old school, but it works so well!), organize my note cards, start on an introduction, and so forth--pretty soon that paper was finished. Done.

I also need to remember this hills analogy with my new job. When I have several articles to write, or need to come up with topics for articles, it can be a bit overwhelming. But if I just say a little prayer and then take one baby step at a time, it all works out. 

Or when I look at my to-do list and think, "There's no way I'm going to be able to get all this done today," I just need to say a little prayer, and start with one thing. And then move on to another thing, and so forth, and before I know it, every item on that list will be crossed off. Or at least most will be crossed off.

Any hill, no matter how steep, can be conquered one baby step at a time.