A few years ago, Brendan Leonard, a runner, wrote a motivational book called I Hate Running and You Can Too. Ha! I love that. Apparently, it’s about helping us understand commitment, develop patience, discover self-discipline, find mental toughness, and prove to ourselves that we can do something demanding.

Everything speaks. Even hating running. Seems Brendan Leonard reached deep into his soul and found the lessons.

Throughout my life, I’ve collected a pretty significant bag of “lesson” material. You probably have too.  Stuff happens. Some of us would call our “stuff” something else. And hating running is the least of it. We’ve made mistakes. We’ve been harmed. 

I’m in a stage of reviewing the high points and low points of my life. Celebrating the good and getting unstuck from the bad. Wanting more. Why did so-and-so happen? What was my part? What was NOT my part? What is the lesson? How can I go forward, better? 

We learn from what we suffer. I think I’ve spent too much time thinking about the suffering and too little time thinking about the learning.

I think it’s time to dig through my bag again and find those lessons. Otherwise, they’ll be lost along with gum wrappers and pen caps at the bottom. And unlike the wrappers and caps, missing the lessons would be a terrible loss.