There’s something called the Zone. It’s a place runners talk about, mostly runners. They talk about entering the Zone when they’ve run a long way and their body wants to stop, but they keep on running and there’s a Wall, but they run through the Wall and they enter the Zone. It has something to do endorphins or metabolism or bio-chemistry, but who gives a flip? There’s another Zone.
It has nothing to do with personal fitness. It has nothing to do with spandex or running shoes or sports medicine or magazines and web sites dedicated to self and all the equipment dedicated to being really important in the mind you carry on your shoulders. Nope. The Zone I’m talking about has been reserved for a special class of individuals from the beginning of time and it pretty much writes all the rules.
It’s called Work.
And the race, the course, the goal is called a Job.
You have to do a Job and you don’t feel like it. You’re tired and worn out and you deserve a rest. You can’t think of a single reason why you could or should continue without anything resembling comfort, but that Job is there. It’s staring you in the face and it won’t go away. It’s connected to a paycheck or something else really important. Like your family. Or the law. Or peace of mind you can’t get if you stay seated on your ass no matter how much you’ve done to get to that place where you really can’t be blamed if you stay put. That’s the Wall and you must go through it. Into the Zone where your mind and self-image aren’t important any more. You’re just working. It’s between you and the pain and no one will ever give you any credit for what you’ve done, but you must do it.
You enter the Zone.
When you cross the finish, when you’ve run the course, something has gotten done. Maybe its another wall. Maybe you painted it or built it or picked up the pieces after it fell down. Maybe you demolished it or sifted through the rubble of something that happened in your life that demolished everything you ever worked to say you did. None of that matters. What matters is you’re in the Zone and while you’re there you’re working until there’s nothing left to do and you’re done.
No one will ever give you a medal. No one will ever pay you enough. They don’t make that kind of money and what you’ve done money can’t buy, but you did it. If you talk about it, you’re bragging. If you don’t do it, you’re a quitter, but you didn’t quit. You went into it and faced it and broke it into pieces and what’s important is it didn’t break you. Tomorrow when you face another Wall you’re going to take a deep breath and maybe say a prayer that sounds more like a curse and you’re going to win, because you didn’t just enter the Zone and leave it.
You own it.
That’s the way it works.
That’s the way it always works.
That’s the way everyone works who knows how.
Cheers.
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