Counterpoint: If You Think Life is A Marathon, You’re Wrong
If you’re one of those people who likes to say life is a marathon, you’re wrong. Life is not a marathon. A marathon has one starting line, and the focus is on the one finish line. While the idea of going through life with the toughness one needs to run a marathon does make sense, these other two traits of a marathon don’t fit the realities of life.
Yes, being tough is important. But if you treat life like it has only one starting line and one finish line being tough will leave you less resilient. Most people think of resilience only in terms of how one reacts to adversity. However, it’s important to remember that the most important factor that dictates how one reacts is how one prepares. If life is a marathon, you get one chance to prepare for the race and therefore no chance to grow more resilient along the way. You just have the toughness you are born with and do the best with that.
Life is like Running a Series of Progressively Longer Sprints
Instead of viewing life like a marathon, a better analogy is that life is like running a series of progressively longer sprints. Life’s sprints start as a short 40-yard dash. Then as you get into your teens the sprints increase to 100 meters then 200 meters. Finally, in adulthood the sprits go as long as 400 meters, 800 meters, and even a mile.
Each sprint requires a different level of preparation, and each sprint enables you to build your resilience for the next sprint. You don’t start by trying to sprint a mile, but you can progressively build your stamina so that one day your conditioning supports that effort. You start where you are, then gradually layer on conditioning and speed to progress towards where you want to be. It’s through this process that your resilience increases.
Indeed, running a marathon is good for increasing your toughness, but running a series of progressively longer sprints is much better for increasing your resilience.