Mailboxes
Beautiful Idiots Proverb #2: “Just to the next mailbox”
A passing thought I had while I was jogging through my neighborhood this morning.
When I was younger I played a lot of sports: lacrosse, basketball, soccer, baseball. My dad was my coach, so I got some extra training at home on the weekends. I was 11 - he’d wake me up at six am and take me to the local gym to do shooting drills. He’d drive me to the high school after hours to play wall ball to improve my stick stills. We’d walk down the street to the baseball field where he’d hit me fly balls and grounders. Then sometimes we would go for runs around the neighborhood. These were the worst.
I realize that’s not a hot take. Most people will tell you running sucks. As a kid I could not have agreed more. I wanted every run to be over as soon as it started. I mean, it doesn’t make any sense. Why would I run away from the comfort of my own home, just to eventually turn around and run back? It was dumb and I would complain the whole time, and every time I asked ‘how much further” my dad would say the same thing: “just to the next mailbox.”
Now, this was a lie, but that was ok. He was trying to get me to push myself when I wanted to give up. I like to think he believed in something I now believe in, which is every person’s ability to excel, perhaps even beyond their own expectations for themselves. If you can commit to pushing your limits, you might be surprised by the results of your efforts. Thinking about it now, I use the mailbox metaphor in just about every aspect of my life, not just my runs (which I go on now more than ever, ironically).
When you set out to achieve something, reaching that end can feel impossibly far away. Setting markers along the way can make it more attainable - they help you keep your focus when inevitably get overwhelmed by the mess that is the middle of a journey.
So four miles might feel much too far, but the next mailbox may only be forty feet away, and when you realize that you were perfectly capable of getting to that mailbox, it’ll feel a little easier to push yourself to the next mailbox, and the one after that and the one after that and before you know it you’ll have made it four miles.
And then, after you’ve made it that far, you’re bound to see something in the distance that you want really bad. Don’t get discouraged… it’s just to the next mailbox.
