Cheering the World On for Goodness’ Sake
Let’s be the cheerleaders for other people’s hopes and dreams no matter who they are and no matter what worthwhile endeavors they might be undertaking. At the end of the day, the world is collectively better off having as many people as we can trying their best to do good things in their lives.
A while back I ran into a group of cyclists who were just 2 1/2 miles away from completing a complete tour of the United States from the East coast to the West. The trip took months and I’m certain a ton of coordination, blisters, scary moments, and a fair share of absolutely breath-taking experiences too.
There are so many lessons we can learn from this amazing achievement, but the thing that struck me as I spoke to a couple of the cyclists was the fact that most of the time, we have no idea where people are on the road to achieving their hopes and aspirations. Some might be just starting a 3,000 mile journey while others might be on the home stretch just stopping my the Tillamook Cheese Factory for a pre-celebratory ice cream cone.
Realizing that we rarely know the full extend of the road ahead for folks means that we should all be as supportive, helpful, and encouraging as we can and cheer each other on with their healthy endeavors. I can see reasons why giving a discouraging word at the beginning of a journey could be particularly hard to take but I could also imagine the middle stretches and the last stretches when we’re tired and sweaty and so ready to return to the comfort of the old ways of living. So let’s just be extra supportive by default and then we won’t have to worry about what our impact on others’ dreams might be.
I remember when I was attempting to run my first marathon. I didn’t really know what I was doing other than I planned out a running schedule that included some progressively long runs toward the end of my training. But even with my lack of experience, I had heard about “the Wall.” The wall is a point in a very strenuous physical exercise regime whether that be running a marathon or riding a century on a bike. When I hit the wall during that marathon, all I could think of was how ridiculous it was that I was trying to accomplish this. I was hurting, my right leg wasn’t functioning well and I’m certain I was running low on energy too.
The last three miles particularly seemed hard, which was crazy because by that point in my training, three miles was nothing. But yet in those moments, it felt endless. But then I started seeing friends with posters cheering me on. And then shortly after that family started running alongside me and I decided I couldn’t stop running while my little sister was running alongside me because she hadn’t trained like I had, so I kept going. And soon after, I crossed the finish line.
Let’s be the cheerleaders for other people’s hopes and dreams no matter who they are and no matter what worthwhile endeavors they might be undertaking. At the end of the day, the world is collectively better off having as many people as we can trying their best to do good things in their lives.