A few months back I found out that I had high blood pressure.  This came as a surprise to me since I tend to eat well and take care of myself. I have to give the credit to my wife for that really, I should say she makes sure I eat well and take care of myself.    When I found out that my blood pressure was high, I talked with my doctor to see how it happened and what could be done.  Of course, the first question was, “How much exercise do you do?”  My answer was no surprise to him when I said, “None, really.”  The majority of my life is talking on the phone and clicking keyboards, no real physical exercise. He then informed me that I had to do something that would get my heart rate up for at least 40 minutes a day.

When I was in college I used to run, so I thought – I’ll just start running again.  I can still remember that first day when I set out for my first run.  I thought – ok 40 minutes, I’ll just set my timer here and run for 40 minutes.  How hard can it be?  So with a dream in my heart and a goal in my head, I took off down the beach to run for 40 minutes.  Well, I think I ran for about 100 yards and I was so out of breath and dizzy that I thought I was going to pass out. I looked at my trusty timer and I had run a total of 3.5 minutes.  Man, was I in trouble.

I was determined though.  I knew if I wanted things to be different in my life I would have to change what I was doing on a daily basis.  It wasn’t going to be easy, but in life it is the things that you work for that are worth having.  Anything that comes easy is usually not worth having.

For the next three weeks I ran as much as I could and would walk a little.  Then run, and then walk until I would keep my heart rate up for 40 minutes.  Every day that I ran I could go a little further.  Each week I was running more than walking until finally I ran for a solid 40 minutes.  That was a day of celebration.  Since that time I have been running on a consistent basis.  I run at least 4 miles a day and sometimes I kick it up to 6.  There was a point about one month into it where I was able to kick it into cruise control and my body could just keep going.  It is a great feeling.

The other day I was in Kansas City and I got up to go running.  I took off down the road and was determined to get my 4 miles in.  I took a turn out of the KOA driveway and was faced with a good-sized hill.  The first thought that came to mind was to turn around and just run laps around the campground where it was nice and level.  But I decided to keep going.  It’s just one hill.  How hard can it be?

I pushed to keep my pace the same and ran up the hill.  I was breathing pretty hard and was drenched with sweat by the time I got to the top.  Once on top the road leveled off and the running was much easier.  My breathing slowed and I cruised along real nice. Then I got to the other side of the hill and it started going down. Then the running was easy.  I cruised along with very little effort.  I loved it.

Of course, about a quarter mile later there was another hill.  This time about twice as big as the last.  Again the thought came into my mind to turn around.  I know I can do that hill, I just did it.  The new hill is too big. I’m too old to do this. I should stick with what I know and turn around.  Sound familiar? Instead I pushed on.  I huffed my way up the hill and again I was winded and sweaty, but I made it to the top.  Just like the last hill the top was flat and eventually it turned into a downhill run which was very refreshing.

This continued until I hit the two-mile mark and I turned around.  I ran the road back to the campground and actually marked one of my best times for 4 miles.

After the run I got to thinking about what had just happened. This course that I just ran is much like life. We are all running at our own pace through life. As we go along we can be cruising along nicely until out of nowhere we have a hill pop up in front of us.  Sometimes it can look like a mountain. When this happens many times we see this as a bad thing and we tend to run from the hills of life.  The first thought is that the hill is a bad thing and we want to avoid it.  We will try to find another way around it.  Many times we will turn around and go back to what we know behind us and stay with what is easy or familiar.

It is not until we push forward, face our fears and go with what might be uncomfortable that we will grow and become better as individuals.  It is not until we run up the hill that we will be able to experience the flat lands in life and then the down hill slope where things seem to be easy and automatic.

The thing to remember is that life has its peaks and valleys.  This is life and I don’t think there is any way around it.  Even more important, is to learn to embrace the hills in life.  It is through resistance that we grow.  Through resistance we build our life muscles and become stronger as individuals.  We need to learn to resist the reaction to turn away from resistance and learn to tackle it head on.

In the movie Evan Almighty one of the characters is upset with what is happening with her life.  She prays to God and wants to know why the bad stuff is happening to her. She meets a stranger who asks her a couple of questions that I thought put it in perspective.  “When we pray to God for patience, does He make us patient or does He give us opportunities to become patient?  When we pray for courage, does He make you courageous, or are you presented with opportunities to become courageous?”

All of the hills we are faced with in life are nothing more than opportunities.  The great thing is that we get to decide the outcome of each of the hills we face.  Do we face our fears and run as hard as we can up the hill? Or, do we stay where we are and run in circles on the flat land not moving forward in life.

It is up to us what happens with the hills in our lives. We decide if we get to reap the benefit of the top of the hill and then the downhill slope. We decide if we stay where we are and run away from the hill never changing and never growing.

We all need to realize that the hill will always be there and we will never get stronger or become better until we run to the top and conquer the hill. Even more we need to realize that conquering every hill is possible.

Here’s to the hills in life. May you conquer every one!

To your success!
Tracy J Trost