20 Comments
Feb 2, 2020Liked by Terrell Johnson

As a pastor sometimes I have to try and help those who have received difficult news, like being told they have cancer. After being with them and listen to them and often crying with them, I remind them and myself just to do the next thing they know to do. To try and take things one day at a time. I'll never forget the best advice I got from a dear friend who was dying from stage 4 breast cancer and had the most positive and godly outlook on her situation. When I asked her how she could do this she replied "I put my hope in Christ and just walk one day at a time doing what I know to do for that day and trying not to focus on what tomorrow may or may not bring. Sometimes I have to walk moment by moment rather than day by day." I have found that advise to be so helpful. Do the next thing you know to do and don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. If I focus on tomorrow I often find the joy of living this day lost worrying about a thing that I have no control of at that time. I surely don't have it down like I wish I did. My daughter has epilepsy and it is hard to always live that out. But by God's grace in our lives, we try and remind ourselves of the truth, do the next thing we know to do and try and live in the present.

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Feb 4, 2020Liked by Terrell Johnson

It came across today and I thought it's worth sharing with all of you:

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."

- Rosa Parks, "first lady of civil rights"

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Feb 2, 2020Liked by Terrell Johnson

As my instructor, Danny Dryer, wrote to me on my last half--"Congratulations on showing up! That is much more important than how you finish or how fast you run"

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I love Big Audacious Goals. The day after my first 5k, I signed up for my first marathon, giving myself a year to get it done. 7 weeks out from the marathon, feeling super strong and healthy after cautiously increasing mileage only <10% and ‘doing everything right,’ a high-hamstring injury smacked me into a new reality. Rest tamed the symptoms, but didn’t cure it. Ran anyway, doing the best with what I had, and finishing at 6:08, a far cry from my 4:30-ish expectation just 7 weeks before.

I’m 5 weeks out from a rematch with that marathon. Yesterday, I ran my first 20-miler of this marathon buildup, and my first ever trail race. Fell 2x, and after the second fall decided to walk the last super-rooted section because I could tell I was getting tired. It cost me 15-20 minutes, but I still made my 2nd goal of finishing <4h. I have another 20-miler in 2 weeks, and

I’ll run that one on the road to better set realistic race goals.

I like the practice of setting 3 goals for a big goal race: one for if everything goes absolutely perfectly, one for if a few things go wonky, and one for if things totally fall apart. At my age (58) ‘finish’ is always goal #3 and I’m happy with it. But goals are fluid things. At NYC I was <1 minute off my #2 goal so I called it ‘close enough’ 😜

I like the #irunthisbody movement not only for body shape but also for setting realistic expectations of what THIS body can do, and not comparing to my 35-yr-old friend who finished the trail race an hour before me 😖

As for your daughter and the auditions, politics and favoritism can play a big role. And teacher/directors may need to ensure diversity or other factors besides performance quality. Attitude can also be part of the decision-making: working hard on a supporting role can earn ‘points’ for future opportunities. 🤷🏽‍♀️ It’s a tough business.

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Feb 3, 2020Liked by Terrell Johnson

As usual, I'm late to the "thread party"! But your topic this week, Terrell, is extremely relevant to my life right now! First of all, with regards to your stepdaughter, having had a daughter go through a flute performance track in high school and college, I believe there exists a huge political bias in the high school setting. Your daughter is clearly talented, and brave (you couldn't pay me any amount of money to sing solo in public!). This is one audition, one high school audition, and she should definitely not give up on her dream based on that!!! The hard work part is the hardest part! - hitting the occasional wall and getting to the other side. High school self-esteem is so fragile, which is another tough component. Whatever she does with regards to the singing, she can't let it end here, on this note (no pun intended!). So now on to running, (which everything I just talked about can apply to running!). I've been training for months to be ready for my first ever marathon on February 16th. I had studied many training plans, and made sure to do a combination of various types of running, cross training, strength/stretching stuff. I just did my last big run 4 days ago and have been having right knee pain every since! Backed off of everything but some yoga and lots of walking, taking Aleve, wrapped in K-tape. Feel like I'm in "running limbo". Want to do this marathon so much - I'm 57, no time like the present. But do not want to hurt myself in a permanent way so I can't do what I love so much, which is run. I welcome any thoughts from this community!

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Feb 2, 2020Liked by Terrell Johnson

Wanted to add my 2 cents regarding the book club: I personally liked the way you divided the chapters - it gave me some time to be late with getting the book, but then catching up reasonable. If it was just one discussion, I am afraid I might consider giving up. It sounds like childish, but I can confess it kept me accountable to keep reading so I can catch up at some point. It wasn't a long, thick book, but handling work-life-run unbalance did not let me to read it as much as I would like every day. But what is the most important, it kept me wanting to find time to squeeze reading it. I'll go with one discussion if you want to try, no problems at all. May be for a shorter read it would work just fine. It also reminds me about the plan of running a longer distance - if you think at once, it's scary. If you break it into parts and picture yourself completing those parts, it looks doable.

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Feb 2, 2020Liked by Terrell Johnson

As for your stepdaughter - not saying it would work, but how about her asking to give her another chance for the audition? Let's face it, sometimes they think we only need X students, no more. But what if X+1 are all good? How can you make the cut? If she loves it, she needs to believe in herself more than anybody else believes in her. Go and talk to those audition people? Ask what prevented her to be picked? Find another audition? It's hard to know what works and what should be done. For sure still keep moving forward your dream, your goal.

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