A few nights ago the question, “Hey Molloy, do you want to go on a hard run tomorrow morning?” was posed to me.
“Umm… sure?!” I replied, not really knowing what a “hard run” meant, for a few of us had already been consistently running through the countryside of Lezhe, Albania all throughout the month.
“Okay, be ready at 6:45 am. George’s (our contact for the month) employee Rachel is in town from the UK and is apparently a really solid runner. She wants someone to run with in the morning.”
.
.
.
So, 6:30 am the next morning, my friend Chaney and I woke up early to go running with Rachel.
& “Run hard” we did. Run hard indeed.
Whew!
.
.
.
Running with Rachel has been way more inspiring for me than my usual jog. It’s taught me a lot about motivation and striving to be the best I can be.
The funny thing about this though, is that I don’t think she has necessarily been trying to motivate me in these ways. At least not intentionally with her words. It just happened naturally. All she had to do was simply: run and be herself.
.
.
.
Rachel is about twice my age and could probably run twice as fast as me if she wanted to. She’s super adventurous and is really easy to dive into conversation with. She’s pretty rad, if you ask me.
Our runs have consisted of about 4 miles in distance, none of which have been at a jogging pace… at least not for me.
The first half of each adventure has contained good conversation ranging from topics of her running adventures to the past communism that once loomed over Albania to having a mindset of being present. The second half has consisted of her taking off in speed, with me striving to stay 10 meters behind at most. My thoughts throughout the second half tend to come back to this: “Shit, this woman is fast. I need to catch up. Ahhh!”
.
.
.
It’s the second half of our runs that have inspired me. The moments that made me think, “Shit. I need to catch up with this woman!”
I haven’t been this challenged on a run in a really, really long time… and I love the challenge. I love being pushed to do better, go faster, run harder. I love the obstacle of, “Can I really do this?” I love striving to hurdle over that obstacle.
On our run this morning I couldn’t help but relate this to my life outside of running.
I want to live a life that makes people think, “Shit. I need to catch up with this woman!” I also want to be sure that I surround myself with people that make me think the same. I want to live a life that challenges people and makes them want to strive to be better. I want to be sure to be challenged in return.
.
.
.
A few days ago after our first run, I found Rachel in the afternoon and asked:
“Rachel, do you want to run again tomorrow morning? Because I feel like running with you is going to make me a better person.”
And it has.
I want to live a life that brings people my way saying, “Hey Em, can I run (literally or figuratively) with you? Because I feel like it will make me a better person.”
I want to inspire those around me to live holier, stronger, more joyful, more beneficial lives. I want to push those around me to be the best they can be. I want to walk through that process with them. I want them to do the same for me.
The important thing about this though, is that I want it to happen naturally. I want it to come from the heart. Otherwise it’s all for naught, in my opinion. Just as I mentioned earlier that all Rachel had to do was run and be herself in order to motivate me, I think this should be the case in life as well. We should be living lives that naturally make people want to be better… because it’s coming from the heart – not because it’s being forced. Then we can know that it’s real and that real change can come from it.
Through living such a life as this, I truly believe that the world can be made a better place, and I want to be a part of that. I want to see lives changed. I want to be changed, too.
So, let’s go! Let’s live lives that push those around us to be better. Let’s allow ourselves to be pushed in return. Let’s make this world a better place.
.
.
.
Proverbs 27:17 – “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
