Reduct: How do you define success?

As discussed in my prior post from three years ago: I was once asked a question during a job interview: How do you define success? At that moment, I recalled my marathon experiences, so I answered the question by describing when I felt successful. I prepared for my marathon races with a training schedule and a meal plan, and I followed both as though they were prescribed by God. As my training progressed, I recorded the desired results, which showed a decreasing heart rate sustaining greater and greater distances traveled in consistently increasing speeds. I was even given a shiny souvenir of my success through each finisher's medal received.

Though I answered the question truthfully, I knew it wasn't exactly right. Six years later, I think I have a better answer. I now define success through the response of two questions: are you well? and are you happy? If one can truthfully affirm the first question, then the second question can be affirmed with ease, and being able to say yes to both questions thereby indicates success. The trick is to define wellness, which I believe is composed of three elements: spirit, health, and fitness.

The element of spirit covers topics such as faith, mentality, mindfulness, self-awareness, and relationships. A myriad of metrics can be applied to the element of fitness, such as weight, blood pressure, body mass index, resting heart rate, and VO2 max. The area where the elements of spirit and fitness overlap reveal the element of health. Since the beginning of this blog, I learned about each element of wellness independently, and over time, I realized this paradigm to express wellness matters within one's control. Exogenous events, such as the death of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or a car accident, can severely impact one's wellness, but navigating through those situations with wellness in mind still requires accessing these three elements. In this way, success is related to your wellness given your circumstances, or "centris paribus" as an economist would say.

Within this paradigm, I would access that my time spent on running marathons provided success in the area of fitness while also providing some exposure to matters of the spirit, but I was not actually well. My faith was not yet formed, and I suffered from migraines on a monthly basis. I had relationships that were difficult and damaging, and I did not feel as though I was progressing in my goals. I now believe I used marathon running as a way to escape from problems that were difficult to define and without any real solutions that were acceptable to me. So I desperately tried to achieve success and happiness through marathon running.

Six years ago, I answered the interview question without fully understanding the depth of my self-deception. For many years, I tried to recall the person that I was when I ran marathons as a means to regain a sense of success. I would commit and recommit to a training schedule and track the pace of my running courses, but it was never sustainable. At some point during my training, I would forgo a run and opt to watch TV on my couch dressed in my pajamas with a pound of Trader Joe's chocolate bar at my disposal. As the weight accumulated, the self-deception would ebb and flow. I would find myself at some unacceptable dress size and give the training schedule another try. I would progress nicely for a short while, but something eventually would divert my attention and the cycle repeats.

No longer near the form required to train for a marathon, but with the three elements of wellness freshly emerged in my mind, I recently began building my cardio base. I started with interval training through Spin classes, and I challenged my patience and endurance by regularly running a 6-mile course. As my heart rate began to stabilize at different exertion levels, I started to lift weights and became mindful of what I was eating. I decided that fitness may preclude the chocolate bar from my diet, but wellness mandates three squares of chocolate whenever it was urgently needed, but only after eating my veggies.

I now exercise a minimum of 45 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days weeks. I normally far exceed this goal because exercise itself also lifts my spirit. I've lost close to 20 pounds within three months, gained a few worthwhile relationships, and I am within striking distance to consider training for a full marathon. Maybe it is fair to say that I have already started training for a marathon, but I'm not yet sure when I will be at the starting line. Under the present circumstances, or centris paribus if preferred, I am at peace, which may be the best place to breed success. So I retract my final statements in my prior post - no new identity required, and Overpronator will resume.