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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Who is the winner? Not he who wins the race, but he who establishes his cheerful oneness with the result, which is an experience in the form of failure or success, a journey forward or a journey backward.”
“I believe the universe is infinitely smarter than we are. There are no coincidences.”
Addicts know the voices in their heads can’t be trusted, and that is precisely why there are so many of us out there in the ultra marathon community, moving forward one step at a time. And that’s what Nico and I did—one step followed by another until we got to Hope Pass.
“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished— that will be the beginning.” - Louis L’Amour, Lonely on the Mountain
I eventually came to accept that my struggles with addiction were just a search for happiness with a tragically poor sense of direction.
Humans are human, and we all fall and bleed. The difference is in how we handle ourselves with our back on the ground. Whether we fold under the weight of the world or whether we have the guts to be positive in the face of
devastation—to not give in to cynical self-destruction, but to let go in its grip—to love fearlessly and completely, and to take one more imperfect step towards getting better.
“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.” - Thomas Jefferson
Yet I can honestly say that running has not made me happy at all. It is closer to the truth to say the quest to find my own happiness has helped me find joy in traveling long distances by foot.
And ultimately, learning to run was a search for mindfulness and self-discovery that acted as the mechanism for the symbiotic partnership that developed between miles and smiles.
the ability to be at complete peace right now despite what is going on around me. The ability to let go of all the beautiful ways life could be better, and see the million previously unnoticed joys surrounding me. And all this happens without words, without changing places, without income, or without any other superficial craving. We don't need teachers, yogis, or an exorcism to be happy. We just need to be still and be present—open to the miraculous moment we are in.
The future right now, good or bad, is being determined by every thought and action I have taken—and that is a pure marriage of Buddhism and the Law of Attraction.
The Buddha said if you are happy, it is because of you; if you are suffering, it is also because of you. I know that makes us uncomfortable when we hear it. And it even sounds like bullshit if you were born into a really shitty life. But whether we like it or not, it remains true. We cannot control what happens to us in life, but we can control what we choose to let it mean.
“I may win today—or I may not finish. Either way, I will be happy.”
we bring happiness into every moment that happens in the race, the good and the bad.
After all, the object isn't to become so mentally strong that we can suffer through any experience; the object is to become so peaceful inside that we choose not to suffer when the pain comes.
In Buddhism we are taught that the way to create suffering is to attach to something, instead of letting things come to us naturally. When we are attached, we fear losing the object of our desire.
It’s odd to think that when we let go of the stress of the future, we always seem to perform at a level high enough to make that future amazing.
I learned that we don't need hope to keep going.
you just gotta hate quitting more than pain.”
Happiness is always inside all of us—it never leaves. It’s always there waiting to be watered and fed and set free.
Finally, I stopped trying to manage how I felt about it and started just accepting it. I remembered the first moments of sobriety when I realized what true surrender meant. Not lying down and giving up; instead, surrender meant accepting that I was gonna have to fight.
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” - Henry David Thoreau
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” - Ernest Hemingway
And every time we ignore the voice of truth or hide our eyes from what the universe is saying, we shut off a little of who we are.
I believe that in all of us there lies a duality—both a warrior and a monk. The whole of my life I have sought to answer my own riddle of how to balance these two forces.
One day while I was resting on a giant boulder, my heart finally opened up and gave me the truth. I realized that neither one of the voices was telling the truth. And neither one was lying, either.
I am not the warrior and I am not the monk. I am the one who listens to the two voices. I am the center of the universe where these two powerful forces live.
can simultaneously fight for a better tomorrow while seeing the beauty in today’s struggle. That is true balance… of power.
I believe the universe is infinitely smarter than we are. There are no coincidences.
