Are You Running Your Own Race?

A couple of days ago read a nice article from Zen Habits on the subject of Mantras.

As I was running the other day, I was thinking about mantras, and how Ive used them with some success in different situations. As silly as you may feel by repeating a mantra, I think they have great use they ingrain an idea in your head and serve as a reminder of something important.

To give you an example: Im running my second marathon this weekend (as you may recall), and the biggest concern I have is not my physical fitness, but a mental one I tend to run too fast because I get caught up in the excitement of a race, or get competitive with the other runners around me. If I do that in a 10K, thats OK, because it helps push me to a personal best. But if I do that in a marathon, I will run out of gas before the end and will have a hard time finishing.

So Ive created a mantra to tell myself during this marathon, to help me stay away from trying to keep up with other runners: Forget Them. Run Your Pace. And I know my pace, if Im able to block out the other runners, and if I do that, Ill have a nice, relaxed, fun marathon. So I plan to repeat my mantra every time I feel myself getting caught up in the race.

So, your thinking, “what the heck does this have to do with buying a home”. Well, at the end of the day, it’s not about keeping up with the Joneses, to buy the biggest home on the block or an apartment in the Datoka (not that there is anything wrong with it).

It’s about running your own race, finding the home of YOUR dreams that you can afford (without being “house rich - cash poor”) and love.

Daniel