Run For Your Life
A 41-year-old Danish woman, Annette Fredskov, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2010. Her reaction? She started running.
Specifically, she ran 26.2 miles (an official marathon) every day for the last year, and twice that on the last day, July 14, which totals 366 marathons run in a single year! She did it to inspire others suffering from MS and credits running as the reason she is now symptom free.
Fredskov is inspiring to all of us. Her choice – to run for her life – is a remarkable example of how much power we all have to change our lives. Instead of sinking beneath the weight of her diagnosis, she rose up and did something highly illogical, unlikely, and heroic. What about us?
We could all take a look at our own lives and ask: “Where am I challenged with a negative diagnosis of some kind (health, financial, in relationship, etc.)… and how am I choosing to respond?” It’s a simple choice, really, to be a victim or a hero. Being a hero is more work, but victims don’t enjoy their lives very much and that comfort zone shrinks as the years go by.
Why not stretch and attempt the impossible instead? Remember what the White Queen told Alice in Wonderland: “Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."