On outlets.

Phil Novack is a runner. A runner who suffered an injury so severe his doctor forbade him to run. Running was his outlet, his means of working through the patterns of thought that swarmed about his brain. When this outlet became temporarily unattainable, Phil had to create a new one, or face a life inherently more difficult to navigate. So he began to write.

I've never met Phil, we're connected by nothing more than social media and have never even so much as exchanged a mutual hello. However, his blog "Running Buddy" (check it out here) in a strange way gave me insight into my own recent attempt at understanding. He writes:

"So if you’re currently sidelined, unable to run or exercise, I recommend writing down your thoughts. It will get you motivated for the next step on your challenge, give you a record by which you can look back at your progress, and perhaps most importantly, clear some space for the other thoughts that are fighting for some room in your constantly active mind. You’ll feel much better for it, and at the end of the day, it will make your road to recovery seem just a little bit shorter."

I want this blog to be a similar record, but for very different reasons. Life will throw you trick after trick, and in a lot of instances, you get injured - physically, emotionally - by the curveballs. Putting your thoughts into order and placing them directly in front of you gives you some sort of yardstick by which to measure how you react and how you move forward. It shows that no matter how hard a situation, you survived, and you became a better, stronger individual for it. And that's the goal in the end, to evolve.

So I hope that this blog will become a measurement of success, hardship and ultimately, evolution to the next tier of life.