Do you have one of “those” days?

I had a horrible night of sleep last night. I accidentally hit the snooze button when my alarm went off at 4:47am (for some reason I feel better with 4:47 then 4:45). Fell back asleep, hard. Woke up at 5 and needed to leave in 15 minutes for my run. Did not want to run or even move. Just wanted to crawl back into bed… but I had a running buddy to meet! Almost forgot my garmin. Realized I probably should’ve taken the morning off because I have a long run (10 miles) tomorrow morning. Too late.

Start running, need to strip a layer because I’m too warm. Have to stop to go to the bathroom at the gas station. Get something stuck in my shoe, start prying it out only to realize it’s a broken beer bottle. Of course I had already cut myself at this point. Continue running with my finger bleeding only to realize my watch was still paused.

Finally get to the end of my run and just want to chug water and go home. Hit my head on the car trying to grab my water bottle. Seriously?! Get home to find my macbook went haywire and thinks it is the year 2000... Maybe it’s from all those old high school AIM chats I was reading last night, the computer wants to go back in time and make me not such a needy, boy crazy teenage girl. Ohhh if I could do it all again with the knowledge I have now… I’d seriously ROCK IT.

So it’s only 10am and it’s already one of “those” days. 

Comparison

 Nicole of Living Life Lite often listens to me rant and rave about life and then sets me straight. I’m eternally grateful for this. This week she did the exact same thing with a simple quote.

I had a bad night this week. I was letting comparing myself to someone else make me feel horrible about myself. I wasn’t as skinny, I wasn’t as fast, so therefore I was fat and I was slow. I seriously started pointing out every negative about myself (my belly jiggles, my thighs jiggle, my calves are huge). There was nothing good. I judged myself for my “short” run of 3 miles and “slow” pace of 8:58/mile (this being a fast pace for me). Normally I would be happy I sweated it out in the humidity and kept a faster pace than my long runs… I was just not happy with anything. I was comparing it all to someone else and their abilities.

After ranting this all to Nicole, she simply said: “comparison is a thief of joy”.

Now my background on my phone

That stopped me in my tracks. Wow. How true is that?! I’m normally so happy and thankful for my ability to run and for my 85lb lighter body. I’m not the best runner and I’m not the skinniest person but I’m usually just fine with that. Why was I letting comparison steal my joy?

I’m sure we all struggle with comparison – not just in looks or sports. Maybe it’s careers, grades, finances. What comparison is stealing your joy? What are you going to do to stop it?