Quit or Walk On?

“Walking is better than stopping.”

–     Scott Tracy, my friend here in the ATX

Early every Friday morning, I have the great honor of sitting down with a handful of great guys for some fellowship and thought provokation.

Brother Watson, Young Bryan, Danny the Manny, Dr. John and “Marathon” Tracy are simply salt of the earth people, and it’s a gift to know them.

This week, the runner in our midst, Mr. Tracy, gave us an extra gift:  the concept that in many cases, it’s better to keep walking, even when you can’t run any more.

A high-level marathoner, he got to mile 17 of a recent race and his mind said, “STOP!”  Whether it was “the wall,” who knows, but all of his body signals and willingness meters were pegging to “Bail.  Stop.  Quit.  There will be other races.”

Unsure (after all his family and friends were waiting at the finish to celebrate what he believed would be his best time!), he walked, saying, “I’ll just walk to that stop sign, then I’ll quit.”  At that sign, he was thinking, “Well, I’ll just walk to that intersection up there, but then I am definitely done.”  Choosing a milestone from that point that was a little further off, he thought it prudent to jog a bit, so that he could quit sooner than if he just walked.  Ultimately, he regained his gait, finished the race and had the best time in his age group of all runners in the race.

This post isn’t to tell you how awesome Scott is, even though he’s sort of awesome.  It’s to point out that sometimes the experience of others can shape our decisions, and that’s why it’s important to have relationships, advisors, experiences and the willingness to share them.  Once shared it gives us a broader base from which to draw upon for our own decisions.

I have posted about “stopping” (particularly stopping the stupid stuff we do!) because I believe we trick ourselves in to thinking the direction we’ve chosen is the only one that gets us there and that we must not stop!  It’s not often enough that we consider whether we can make a different choice, and that there is, in fact, the option to stop.  Yet, there is also the option to walk on.