What Are You Running Up Against?

A few weeks ago, I had a very delightful and exciting 48-hour trip in New York City. Half the trip was for pleasure and the other part was dedicated to making up a major session from the leadership course I recently completed.  

The session for this day was 12 hours (!!!) and by about hour #7, I was starting to fade. (Might I add that hour #7 was after our early-dinner break and you know as a Negress I am prone to the “Itis” LOL!). After the break, our session leader invited in one of the major leaders in the program to come in and speak to us about our next step after completing our current program. I LOVE this guy to death (he is one of the few African-American leaders in the program and he is incredibly captivating) but I was in no mood for the “up-sell” speech for the next program. Many folks in the room had body language and expressions that matched my own -- “Really. Please. We are NOT interested.”  Just as I was about to tune him out, he said something that blew my little head to smithereens.  

After the sixth person said, “I am tired and don’t have time to do another program,” the leader asked “Well, what exactly are you running up against?” WHAT? He asked again, “What are you running for, passionate for, and completely engaged in that is worthy of your life? Do you have things in your life that make you strive for the next level and push you to be better than where you are now?”

Well, damn. Now I had to think. What was I running up against? More time on the couch to watch “RuPaul’s Drag Race?” More hours to lollygag on Facebook? Not that either one of those activities are horrible, but I certainly could use my time more productively to write more, get more involved in the community, and focus on my health.

Within the last few weeks, I am proactively starting put different goals and ideas in place that are indeed worthy of “running up against,” namely coaching five folks beginning in May and walking a 5K in early June. (Ya’ll pray for the folks I will be coaching. They don’t know the ride that they are in for. LOL!).  Not that I won’t build in time for “aggressive power loafing” and “Olympic freestyle bubble bathing,” but I’m looking forward to using my time to “run up against” things that are truly worthy of who I am.