There are no shortcuts to any place worth going

Sometime in this sport, you need to get back to basics. Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the purity, to love the pace on the track. The technical aspects. And if some kid gets really good at it, that's cool too. But you need to love what you do, in every single possible way.

The more I talk to different athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top. Your training partner's name is pain. You start out trying to ignore him. Can't do it. You attempt to reason with him. No way. You try to strike a bargain. Hah. You plead. You say "Please stop, please go away. I promise never ever to do this again if you just leave me alone." But he won't. But i promise you, the pain of disipline is far less than the pain of regret. And the Truth is that Running Hurts. No one gets faster without meeting their personal pain barrier straight on. No amount of junk miles, fun runs or affirmations are going to get you to any place worth going. Wether thats winning states, nationals, or any international event.

No one ever won the Gold medal with an impressive training diary. Your hard work MUST be met with a determined mind. Faith can move mountains, doubt can create them. And yeah, sometimes its hard not to doubt yourself when the rest of the world doubts you. But its important to remember that we are truly judged by what we finish, not what we start. and only a person that has done nothing, is sure that nothing can be done. If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win. Its continuous effort, not strength or talent, and a strong mind that is the key to unlocking our potential.

A winner makes commitments to a goal, a loser makes promises. And yeah, you wont win and you wont run your best every single time you hit the track, if we did i would be a 7.5 100m runner by now. But bad times do have a great value, these are the times a good learner would not miss. Errors and mistakes are so important but once you have learnt from them, they MUST be forgotten. Just do what you love. Love what you do. And deliver more than you promise.

You should also keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great athletes make you feel that you, too, can become great. We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; It does not exist and I am not cut out for defeat. I can be destroyed but not defeated.

Ever.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though splattered by failure, than to rank with those worthless people who neither enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory or defeat. If you believe in yourself, have dedication and pride and never quit, you'll be a winner.

The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.

Its True

Dont give up on you.

Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.

The biggest challenge we will ever face in life is ourselves. What we believe about ourselves and how we perceive ourselves both stem from what we think about ourselves. The mind is a powerful tool. Like a computer, it is easily programmable, adapting and performing according to the specifications of the information received. For that reason, it is important to realize that if you don't control your mind somebody else will.

How many people have never achieved a goal, or a dream, or even stepped out to try because someone told them, "You can never do that! You're not smart enough! You're not talented enough!" That information was processed, then programmed into the "computer," and the thought patterns and actions adapted to coincide with what was accepted as fact or reality. One of the great paradoxes of life is that many of us believe things about ourselves that are not even true. It is important to realize that a lie is as powerful as the truth, if you can get someone to believe it.

Many people have held back in certain areas because of the things that they believe about themselves. They think thoughts like: "Well, I don’t know…." "I'd be embarrassed." "My mother may not like it." "My father may not like it." "They may not like what I have to say." "What if I fail?" Many dreams remain only dreams, never becoming reality, and die unborn because of the belief in the negative words of others or because of poor thinking that produces low self-esteem.

Take some time to examine the stories that you believe about yourself. Are there areas in which you have held back, or are there dreams and goals that you are not pursuing because of what others think or have said about you? Don't let others control your mind. Look at where you have come from, what you have attained, and what you have accomplished so far. Take those achievements and begin to reprogram your thinking. Take control of your mind and begin believing in yourself and seeing yourself as successful.

Fear.

Fear is a great motivator for my running. I am one of those people who are terrified of losing. There are millions of people like me. Afraid of failure. The difference between them and myself is that my fear motivates me, it doesn't hinder me. When I'm scared, I work harder, I don't give up. When I'm defeated, I believe harder, I don't doubt myself.

When I'm scared, I'm desperate and it written all over my face when i run.

This is a tough way to play the game. But my fear is my strength. When it comes down to racing, its a matter of life and death. Failure is not an option i consider or prepare for.

Thats what its all about. Catch or be caught. Flee or Fail. You have to know you are the best. There is no option. Bare your souls and lay everything on the line.

Because, if your not scared, then your not taking risks.

&& if your not taking risks, then your not going anywhere.

vomit my heart onto the floor.

Unable to guess the answer, she asked

"Who am I, that you should love me?"

he looked her in the eyes;

"you are my everything."

She sat perfectly still, looking at him without moving as his words dropped like water onto a dry earth

"Do you believe me?" he asked

"Yes" she answered

"Do you love me?"

"Yes"

"I love you too"

&& she believed him.

♥

Where art thou o' confidence.

Like a burst of flames i am now full of doubt.

Doubt is a funny thing, one minute your unstoppable, the next there is a seed of doubt planted in your mind. A weed. If you let it continue to live in the corner of you mind and it will soon spread to grow into something much bigger. It will take your confidence, your believe and your goals. Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

In this life you need to be proactive. Nothing in life comes easy. Nothing is free or without great cost. Sacrifice. Hardship. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary! Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win by fearing to attempt. Now, i never though this would ever describe me but after years of people planting the seed of doubt in my head i guess i never addressed it and it grew. Its hard when very few truly believe in you. But it ends now. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.

Why does it matter what people say? But if you call a cat a dog, treat a cat like a dog for long enough, that cat will start believing its a dog. horrible metaphor i know but when people keep telling me over and over and over again that i can not do something, you start believing them. and thats a very slippery slope to be on. but as they say, if you’re going through hell, keep going.

People may doubt what you say

but they will believe what you do.

They have to. So let them doubt you.

Discourage you. Disrespect you.

Let them tell you that you cant do it.

Prove them wrong.

And when you get to the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on. Because it is your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude. Hard work spotlights the character of people.

Some turn up their sleeves.

Some turn up their noses,

and some don’t turn up at all.

So many of our dreams at first seems impossible,

then they seem improbable,

and then, when we summon the will,

they soon become inevitable

Death before dishonor

Its not difficult to realize the impact of attitude in our day to day life. Sometimes, attitude is more important than facts. Personally, I never expect to lose. Even when I'm the underdog, I still prepare for victory. The most important thing to realise is that we have a choice regarding the attitude we will wear for a particular day. Attitude changes everything. The last of the human freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances and its amazing how much it can change things.

Attitude is a choice.

A decision you make when you choose to be better.

My attitude toward my sport has been so caught up with times, technique, perfectionism. I have forgotten the most import thing of all. My love and passion for what i do. My attitude shifted from loving what i do to watching that clock. 2010 has brought with it the wrong set of values and attitude and i will not be able to go far this year unless i make the informed choice to change it.

You cannot tailor make your situation in life, but you can tailor make your attitudes to fit those situations.

Why worry about times? If you train hard you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat. So put you fucking head down, get to work and hit that starting line knowing you did absolutely everything you possibly could to prepare yourself for victory.

ive got soul, but im not a soldier

Ordinary is BORING.

Its not about the shoes.

its about knowing where you are going,

not forgetting where you started.

its about having the courage to fail,

not breaking when you are broken.

taking everything you have been given

&& making something better

It about work before glory.

&& whats inside of you.

Its doing what they say you cant.

Its not about the shoes.

Its about what you do in them.

Its about being who you were born to be.

My better is better then your better.

Some people listen to themselves,

rather then listen to what others say.

These people don't come along very often.

But when they do, they remind us once you set out on a path,

even though your critics may doubt you,

its ok to believe,

that there is no "cant" or "wont" or "impossible"

They remind us its okay to believe,

Impossible is nothing.

today is the first day of the rest of your life

Here i sit. With high hopes and big dreams. But i am no different to most. "I wanna do this, I'm going to do that" but am i really willing to do what others don't to achieve what others wont? I'd like to think i would do everything to be the best i can but some days that is a lie. The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The WILLINGNESS to learn is a choice and some days its just easier to choose to be mediocre. Why must this pursuit for perfection rule my life? To myself I seem to be like a girl playing idly on the seashore, now and then finding a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of success lay undiscovered before me. I have had my solutions for a long time, but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them. I work hard, believe, suffer and sacrifice. The idea that so much suffering can be in vain is intolerable to me, i know persistence is the key but which door does it open? My mum told me when i was very young that God will never give you more then you can handle. and i try to keep this in mind on days like this. Day so dark you wouldn't know them to exist.

But I must get up, dust myself off and pursue these dreams. Maybe I made you believe that it was easy. But I've worked on this these dreams, every single day of my life.

Which is exactly why I must push on, and persist. To chase my dreams through the struggle and hardship because if I don't, the last 16 years of my life had been a build up to nothing. A giant drum roll.

The graveyards are full of irreplaceable people, but only winners are remembered.

My Story.

When your born you start from the bottom. Your parents hold your hand through all of your greatest learning points. They teach you to talk. eat. crawl. walk.

Then they hand you off to your coach at five years of age. Your coaches holds your hand through all your greatest achievements. He taught you to run. believe. dare. dream.

You work your way up the ladder of success. When your at the bottom, no one cares about you. As you climb they start to notice you. As you pass them and they start to hate you. When your on top, it doesn't matter what they say. Other coaches now try to help you, confuse you with a million different things you should be doing, trying to have there claim that they somehow helped you along the way. To take a slice of the glory.

You achieve greatness and your current coach gets all the credit.

But somehow it doesn't sit right with me.

What about that man who taught me to run. To love what i do. That man, what now seems like a million years ago, who spend hours and hours setting me up for success. Setting the foundation of the Athlete i am today. Without him, i am no body.

In the limelight and glory you should never forget where you came from. Your past which defined your future.

The first ten years of training are the hardest. Then it just gets harder.

Tragic.

In life, there are many great tragedies. You could lose the love of your life. Lose you mother, brother, father, sister, everyone you care about. You could lose your home. Lose your legs, or arms. Your sight or sound. You could lose your mind or lose your kids. And the sad part is that a lot of these things are out of your control. Everybody dies. Accidents happen.

The real tragedy is when your lose yourself.

Lose hold your dreams.

The greatest tragedies are not written in a book. Or inflicted on you by fate. The greatest tragedy is when you look in the mirror and you are not everything you wanted to be. When you see her eyes and know she didn't do everything she could to be her best.

You might think I'm crazy for having big dreams. Or maybe I'm crazy because I vocalize these dreams. How many people say they will be there and never make it?

And i see your point.

But what you don't know is that by telling my dreams, i make them real. Achievable. I can do anything i put my mind to as long as i put my whole self into that task. I am a powerful, strong-willed determined person who will do everything within legal limits to achieve my dreams.

Again, how many people have said that and still not made it. You might be saying the same thing.

But I have worked for this. every single day of my life. I WILL NOT be known as a dreamer. But a DO-ER.

I have the courage and determination to push my body to its limits. I can push myself to train until i can no longer move, then get up and train some more.

Can You?

Running Free

I beg you to sit back and take stock of your life.

Think about all the memories. The good and the bad ones. And the insignificant ones. Think about your epic failures. And your greatest achievements. Take stock of all the people you've hurt, and those that hurt you. I beg you to just take a minute to think about everything that really matters to you.

Your fights with your best friends. Your goals you didn't achieve. The insignificant memories you've forgotten. The mistakes you never learnt from.

Are you the best person you could be? Are you patient, kind, loving, caring. Forgiving? Can you wipe your hands to the past and better yourself in the future?

Now, remember your greatest success.

Did you savor that moment or did you rush on in a blur of excitement over your own glory?

I rushed mine.

So overwhelmingly excited that my failures were all behind me. So disillusioned into thinking that i never had to deal with struggle or pain or failure because i had shown myself that i CAN achieve anything i set my mind too. I thought all my hard work had finally paid off and i can start taking it easy and it will all take care of itself.

wrong.

The minute you hit the top their is only one way to go.

Down.

And its enviable. Sure, you believe you'll always be on top, you have too otherwise you wont last for a second. But in reality, once your on top, the entire world has now put a target on your back. They're going to be after you like there's no tomorrow. Yeah, one day people will catch you. One day you will fall from grace. The hardest thing about being on top, is staying on top. The key is to be prepared for the fight to stay on top for as long as you possibly can.

You wont win every time. But its important to never expect defeat.

Enter every activity without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. The minute you start thinking about losing, you've already lost. Once your on top, you have to work harder then you ever had to in your entire life just to stay there. All eyes will be on you and the pressure will wear you thin. You will need to be strong. Humble. Courageous, in victory and defeat. But never forget who you are. Or where you came from. Never forget that success that threw you into the spotlight. Remember those who stood by your side when you were less successful.

After you've worked hard to get what you want, take the time to enjoy it.

Don't let your passions become your job. A chore. Never lose your grip on your love for it.

Its only then you can truly be freeee.

Persistence.

I would never want to be the one to admit this, but maybe its easier to be mediocre. To be average. Unspectacular. Unfortunately, this is not a path i choose for myself, however, some say that there is nothing wrong with mediocrity. Those people are quitters, people who are so scared of failure that they resign themselves to the gutter of society, and why? Simply, because their afraid. Not afraid of finding out their own limits and testing their own boundaries. Not overly scared of hard work. They're a little scared of what they could be. But mostly, they're scared if the best they have is not good enough. What if they put the most of themselves out there, not hold anything back, and still fail?

Before i make my point today i want to bring to light the career of possibly the greatest middle distance runner of our time.

Hicham El Guerrouj (comp number 2469)

Olympic career campaign :

1996 Atlanta Olympics. 1500m.

Fell with 400m to go.

2000 Sydney Olympics. 1500m.

Undefeated since his fall in 96, he was found crying in the alley way of the stadium because he knew he hadn't done enough to win. Despite being the world record holder in the event, he was ran down only meters from the line.

After the race he was in tears.

2004 Athens Olympics.

He chased that olympic dream for 8 years. through 3 olympic games. Finally he won his Olympic Gold. His games didnt end there. a couple of days later he ran the 5000m.

Which he won in impressive form. A few days earlier he had no olympic golds. he didnt accept failure. He was not content in his defeat. He came back stronger then ever. Smarter. Determined. He laid everything on the line. And he won. He the 1500m. He won the 5000m.

He now had two golds.

So, it doesnt matter if you fail. As long as you get back up, dust yourself off and try again. No matter how long it may take. Every failure leads to victory if you have the heart, courage and patience to persist, work hard and strive to be the best you can be.

Im not going to lie. It wont be easy.

there will be heartbreak.

failure.

disappointment.

Pain.

There will be times when you will struggle, and be mentally defeated.

Times where you will feel it would be easier to quit.

In those times you need to remember what it felt like to fail.

What disappointment tastes like.

You'll fail a million times. But when you succeed i promise you there will be no greater feeling in the world. it will be worth every second of pain and sacrifice.

There is nothing different between you or me, or Hicham. We are nothing but mere mortals. We we're born the same and we will all die.

He is not superhuman.

He is a dreamer.

the power of belief.

i did it too.

i used to look at the superstars on TV. Film stars, rock stars, sports stars. idolise them to the point where what they achieved seemed nothing less then impossible. they were chosen by a high force of the universe to be special. successful. but none of these so-called stars, heroes even, got to where they are without failure.

hard work.

determination.

and for every one person that supported them, 100's doubted them.

Who thought it were possible for Michael Jordan to fly the way he did? For Lance Armstrong to dominate the world of cycling after surviving cancer, one, two, three times? Who thought it were possible for a black man of African decent with a muslim sounding name to become the President of the most powerful country in the world.

Don't sit there and tell me your a believer, because we all know you doubted them too.

But the real question here is, why? Why did you doubt the dreams of another man? Why did you think it impossible to achieve these great heights?

Maybe because it had never been done before?

Maybe because you could never conceive achieving such greatness?

Maybe because it stretches into the realm of what you are convinced is unachievable.

If we only dreamed to follow into the footsteps of others we would never progress. as a species or as an individual.

we are destined to rise above our forefathers and be the absolute best we can be.

Destined to rise above the crowd.

Others may call me crazy, others call me a dreamer. but i believe there is little that we can not achieve. we all hear the stories about the wife who lifts off the tractor that fell on her husband with her bare hands. and we all think, 'yeah right, i don't believe that'. but who are you to doubt such power. we are restricted in this life to our own set of beliefs. and that low set of beliefs keeps up from our true potential.

studies have shown that in a life threatening emergency the chemicals produced in our bodies can give us the power to run faster then Usian Bolt, jump higher then Michael Jordan, be stronger then Muhammad Ali.

now I'm not saying we can fly, as long as we truly believed it. I'm in no position to make that claim. but why cant we live up too and surpass these great victories. their legendary status. these seemingly impossible records.

records, after all, are made to be broken.

Believe.

tattoos are my brand and piercing are my calling card

i will be whoever the fuck i want to

&& you cant tell me otherwise.

i'm a violent, angry,

passionate person,

with high hopes

and big dreams.

i wont be someone who will be told

what she can and cant achieve.

what is and what isnt possible.

what i should and shouldnt do.

no, fuck that.

i'm getting tattoos and doing what i shouldnt

i will do the impossible and achieve the unachievable.

because as long as there is breath in my body

i will fight. for myself.

&& against those who doubt,

not just me but people like me-

dreamers with their heads in the clouds

and their feet on the floor

the non-believers,

who judge the impossible

by their own standard of mediocre living.

they say impossible, but impossible isn't fact.

its only an opinion.

&& in my opinion

an impossible task explains itself.

i'm-possible.

I'm a bad influence && i wont change for anyone

she lies awake.

you pass thousands of people everyday.

in cars, on the train, down the street.

people with their own insignificant problems and fears.

we walk down the street without a care in the world about the people we are passing.

their names. their problems.

their stories.

people who could be molded and changed to become better

if only they believed they could.

in this life we are pigeonholed to become mediocre.

by our parents, teaches, friends. ourselves

but really, who are you?

have you ever truly asked yourself that question.

are you happy?

"all that we are is the result of what we have thought" - budda

now im not a huge believer in that which i cant see.

and even half the stuff i see i still dont believe.

but how dare the world tell you what you can and cant do.

who are you not to be beautiful, talented, adventurous.

Successful.

Its time this world celebrated accomplishments,

not alienated those who strived for better.

without dreamers we wouldnt have anything in our lives.

space travel, telephones, computers, internet, cars, planes.

achievements.

success is not given.

it doesn't just fall into your lap.

you have to chase your dreams, hold on to them with two hands

and never let go.

you can to anything you set your mind too.

whether its education, sports, love.

the world is yours to discover. to enjoy.

to conquer.

so plan for today.

to be better then you were yesterday.