Why We Quit

When I jog, I feel as if I'm running for my life.

You see, I might need a stem-cell transplant someday. Don't worry: My cancer is in remission now. And it's likely that new treatments will keep me from needing a transplant (just as they kept me from needing one before). Still I feel the need to stay fit -- mentally and physically, just in case. 

So I worry when I intend to jog, say, two miles but quit after going only one: "If I don't have the will power to jog two measly miles, maybe I don't have what it takes to get through future treatment." 

I'm sharing this because I just read an intriguing post entitled "Why We Quit" by Alex Lickerman, who maintains a valuable blog, "Happiness in This World. Reflections of a Buddhist Physician." Lickerman writes, "[W]hen my mind started to visualize the end of the run, it shifted from managing the pain my body was feeling to preparing for it to end.  And in preparing for it to end, its ability to resist the influence of that pain rapidly fell apart."

He concludes that "the point at which our strength fails us—can be changed. We can become stronger by challenging our weakness even if at first we don’t succeed...the key to victory is strength, and the key to developing strength is trying again, no matter what the reason you failed before."

I'll talk about his conclusion in my next post.

Comments

[Ronni Gordon]

Dear Wendy,

Drawing long-term conclusions from quitting after one mile does not sound like you. This is the kind of beating oneself up that you are so good at counseling other people not to do. If you stop after one mile, it probably means that you just don't have it that day, not that you are a wimp. Of course I understand the tendency to draw all sorts of conclusions from a bad or abbreviated run myself!

[Jonnie Hickman]

Thank you again Dr Wendy. I am so grateful to find this entry tonight, as I'm still in decsion mode about Hospice or more treatments. Yes, treatment will further my time on this planet, but at what cost? I encouraged two young women in my support group to do treatment if that was what they wanted because not doing treatment means certain death. I love life, but I am so tired of fighting. I fight not only cancer but everything and everyone in this part of my life. Some religions believe that quiting your treatment is a form of suicide. You can't make people understand, but I feel a cancer journey being told is education and a start. Thank you again.

Jonnie