I was listening to someone in my running club the other day that was quoting from Nike talking about how we should make our runs legendary. This got me thinking about the way we define legendary and words like this in general. You know I am big on stuff like that. I like to dig deep and find out what we really mean when we talk about things that are big and bold like "legendary."
A lot of times I feel like we run into problems because we define legendary as something that is solely external. A lot of times we feel like we can't be legendary because we define legendary by what constitutes legendary in the world's eyes. We think that it is up to the world to define what makes someone legendary. Whether or not they live up to a certain standard. Whether or not they have enough money in their bank account, or enough followers on facebook and instagram. Or maybe even things that were legendary like creating the iPhone or winning an NBA championship. Those things might be legendary, but we decide because that might be out of our possibilities that being legendary is just something that is not for us. We decide that being legendary is outside of what we have the potential to be. We feel like we have to be famous to be legendary, or change the entire world to be legendary, but I have been thinking about all of that and I just do not think that is true.
Today I was running and I was having a hard time because I was trying to run as fast as I possibly could. I remember thinking while I was running that this run wasn't legendary because I felt like I was struggling too much, but then I thought about it. I realized that I was pushing myself to my absolute limit and that in and of itself is legendary. To push yourself to your limits is absolutely legendary. We save this phrase too much I think. I mean, don't get me wrong, I believe in being careful not to overuse words to the point where they lose their meaning entirely, but I also think we don't have to reserve "legendary" for the top one percent of all people who ever lived. It is not wrong to push yourself to your limits and describe that as legendary. If you are working harder than you were yesterday. Then that is legendary. Every legend has a beginning. Don't fool yourself into thinking that only the masters can be legendary. It is about mindset, not award.
Anybody can be legendary if they push themselves to be the best that they possibly can in any given situation or area of their life. If you want to be legendary then do it. You have the potential each and every day. So get out there and be legendary.
It all starts with you.
