Start Me Up
You Don't Need A New Year To Cross A New Starting Line
It’s a busy time of year for dorks like me. I’m not saying that there’s a time of year that’s slow for coaches. But there are definitely periods that are less fast than others. January is not one of those times. That’s because just about everyone gives January 1st and the immediate weeks after it an almost supernatural power and meaning. I get it. A new day that happens to also represent a new month that kicks off a new year can mean a new beginning. A new beginning means a clean slate, right? Sure! If that’s what you need then that’s what it means. And new beginnings in the form of new starting lines just so happen to be one of my favorite things to talk about and help with. Hence the busy schedule.
Yes, since it is the start of a new year I am going to give you a few well worn tips in the guise of few well known song lyrics I believe will be well received by anyone with welly for their own wellness goals. Go ahead. Look up welly. Great word. Second definition as per usual. Anyway, the real reason for this post isn’t even the tips that you’ll read shortly. Be patient, they are on the way. By the way, being patient is one of the tips. Consider this practice. The real purpose of this post is to remind you that you don’t need to turn a page of your calendar to take a turn in your life. In fact, you don’t need a Monday or a new day or different year to be new or different yourself. Because you are always and forever being the newest and therefore latest version of you. You are constantly updating. You are always starting, starting over, starting again, starting anew. Even when you’re finishing you are starting. Every finish line is really just a starting line in disguise.
Why do I feel the need to tell you all of this? Great question. I’m telling you this because in a few weeks you’re going to feel so very far away from this sacred starting line we call the New Year. We won’t even be in February yet and the calendar will remain unflipped but motivation will have waned and inspiration will be hard to find. Where did all that good stuff go? Hard to tell. Probably ended up in the same place as all those missing socks. That’s why I now refuse to wear matching socks. It’s ridiculous. Who even cares if you have matching socks on? Most of the time we don’t even notice each others socks. And if we did notice I bet it would be more fun to see unmatched socks on each other.
I digress.
I want you to end this post knowing that starting lines are not about how far you have to go. They are about how far you’ve come. And when you find yourself staring into the abyss of a dreary, damp, chilly late afternoon in a few weeks and you’re overwhelmed by just how much more you need to do to achieve whatever resolution you resolved to do a few weeks earlier I want you to remember what I write next.
You are right where you need to be. You’re on a starting line. And you’re going to cross it. Because it’s not just us that moves. Starting lines move too. They move right past us if we don’t make the first move. What happens on the each side of that line is up to you. One more thing, you’re always good enough to get better. It’s the truth. How do I know that?
Because you’ve got some welly inside you.
Yeah, you should definitely look up the definition. It sounds a whole lot less weird when you know what welly means. Now for those tips…
TIPS FOR THE START (OR ANY OTHER PLACE OR TIME)
Just figured it would be more fun to share a few great songs while I share a few great tips by sharing a few great lyrics from those great songs. So much winning.
Tip #1 All we need is just a little patience. (From Patience by Guns N’ Roses)
Every starting line demands patience. You needed patience to get there. And you’ll need patience on the other side of it. Because wherever you want to go or get to or be at is as far away as it is and there ain’t nothing you can do to get closer other than get closer. And if what you’re after is two kilometers or two miles or two months or two surgeries away then that’s what it’s going to take. No shortcuts get you there either. Because where you want to go isn’t just about the destination.
That’s the thing with goals. It’s not whether or not you achieve a goal that makes the goal extraordinary. It’s what you did to try and accomplish that goal that makes the goal extraordinary. It took me a long time to realize that you can’t fast forward to anything good in this life. But you sure can fast forward yourself to the not so good stuff.
It’s going to take time to accomplish or achieve anything worthwhile. And when it comes to kickass-badass-big ass goals I’ve got to share with you that time takes it’s sweet ass time. Be patient. And don’t confuse patience with doing nothing. Patience, at least according to the definition I love, is quiet, steady perseverance. That doesn’t sound like nothing to me. Sounds like something pretty amazing.
Tip #2 Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone. (From Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac)
I understand just how easy it is let yesterday (and all those yesterdays) thumb the scales today. Your fitness is after all created by what you’ve done. I’m not telling you to dismiss yesterday. I’m not asking you to ignore what you did yesterday or three months ago or last year or back in 2011 either. I’m fascinated by (most) of your stories. But who you were doesn’t do anything anymore. Them there are the facts. That’s a bit of a curse I guess. Because you still need to deal with today no matter how much you dealt with yesterday. And you can’t recover more or laugh more or run more yesterday. You can’t stress less yesterday. You can’t make change yesterday in any way shaoe or form. Sounds like a curse from a Greek myth you had to read when you were eleven years old. But it’s a blessing too. Because yesterday is gone. It always will be. It’s not coming back. Ever. Take advantage of that. Learn from yesterday. Use your past to inform you. Be motivated by yesterday. Use your past to inspire you to move on. Don’t let yesterday imprison you there in the past. Because you have in fact always moved on from yesterday.
Tip #3 Today is the greatest day I have ever known. (From Today by The Smashing Pumpkins)
Ahhh, today. So full of promise and possibility and potential and problems. But no matter how difficult today can be I still love it. I’m a coach. I’m all about today(s). Even when I’m writing out training plans that only live in the future I’m really just thinking about a whole bunch of todays. And that means to me who you are today is the most important version of you. Because who you are today, this you, the version of you on this starting line here is the one and only version of you I get to work with. So, I respect this you. I believe in this you. I’m happy this version of you are here. And you’ll have a better today if you feel that way about this you too.
Tip #4 Tomorrow is forever. (From Tomorrow is Forever by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton)
I’m dreamy about tomorrow. And that’s about the best way I can describe it because like a dream it’s all just hazy and half forgotten. Not sure how something that hasn’t happened yet can already be forgotten much less half forgotten but I know you know what I mean. As a coach I do my very best to try and know as much as I can about tomorrow while also surrendering to the fact that I don’t really know anything about it. That’s part of why I try to invest as much of myself in all my todays. Seems to make the most sense if I want to have all those yesterdays pay compounded interest today. Makes sense to me. And if it makes no sense to you I’ll just let you know that like Dolly tells us here… tomorrow is forever. Which means part of tomorrow will always be never. Best to be where we are. Today. Soak it up. Because unlike tomorrow today is not forever. It’s finite. And soon enough it’s yesterday.
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THANK YOU FOR JOINING ME ON ANOTHER STARTING LINE
Do you think I look as nuts as I think I look in this picture. Now, in my defense, I’m at a glorious establishment known as reel M’Inn here on Portland, Oregon. Not only does it have a jukebox that most patrons ignore which means I get to take that sucker over and basically listen to my own personal mixtape but it also has the best fried chicken on earth. This is not an exaggeration. They make the best fried chicken on earth. I’ve waited as little as 40 minutes and as long as 90 minutes for my order there. It’s always worth the wait. I get take out because the deal with Coach Bennett the Greater aka Show Up Society aka Tammie Bennett is that I go in and order and get the food and therefore I get to hang out inside and listen to music and hydrate.
Anyway, the point is that I’m pretty sure that my eyes in the picture above look like Kyle the Opossum’s from the wonderful movie Fantastic Mr. Fox . Whenever Kyle gets rattled his eyes go bonkers. And I’m thinking that the anticipation I’ve obviously got for the chicken combined with the joy of hearing A Little Respect by Erasure on the jukebox and then combined with the effects of the hydrating I was doing combined with the perfect dive bar ambiance I’m surrounded by and that epic combination gave me Kyle the Opossum eyes.
This was not what I set out to do here. I didn’t even mean to insert that photo of me at reel M’Inn. I meant to drop in a picture of me clapping. That was going to be my artistic way of thanking all of you for reading and sharing and just being a part of the Coach Bennett’s Newsletter community. A community of readers that is over 13,500 strong. But I saw that picture of me and I thought of reel M’Inn and then I thought of beer and chicken and 80’s synthesizer heavy music and then I saw my eyes and next thing you know I’ve got Kyle the Opossum in my head. Now you know how hard it is for me to write one of these newsletters. Don’t even get me started on the guided runs. More of those coming in 2026 by the way. See how I snuck that in here?
Sweet and tender mercies… where were we? Thank you! That’s where. Thank you for reading and running and challenging yourself and believing in yourself and making room for the possibility that you can still surprise yourself and thank you for making room for others on this starting line we are all supposed to share.
This sport is better because YOU are a part of and not apart from it.
Know that.
Cheers,
Coach Bennett
Thank you coach! Your runs, podcast and emails always what I needed✨
Past is some sort of narration that is going in our minds is what I think. It's nothing more than that. Using past to inform us, using past to learn lessons to tweak things in near future in any walk of life and past plays a role but the pint is WHY imprison ourselves in the past as you mentioned.
It is quit easy said than done but this has to applied in life, if not complacency will ruin our souls all the time.
A very happy new year.! :) Personally speaking Bennett brother in terms of running I am nowhere in terms of running where I wanted to be right now. But if I view it from a then thousand foot view lense- I have improved as an athlete.
Yeah I have not performed to the fitness I had in races and still have been cussing myself for chronically under performing since I have started running. I got to keep in perspective that- Everyone is more times nail than the hammer but we expect ourselves of being hammer. Are expectations reality? Not even 1% of it is, it is just a narration going in our minds that this should be like this in near future, that should be like this in a year and all of these projections aren't reality.
I never feel satisfied brother with whatever I do in life, not even after reaching the goal I wanted to. It is simply the way I have grown up and because of all the other things going around me but since the last couple of months I am a lot of at peace even though I look forward towards the next thing always. I have simply said to myself take risks, whether or not I achieve that particular goal, time or place- it does not matter I don't have to stick to that result as at the end everybody has got the journey even though they don't have the expected result or not which means we should try to enjoy the journey as at the end if one don't get the result- they will be proud of they showed up and were present for the process.
There has been a lot going on about fulfillment, happiness while striving for goals and then there has been a lot of preaching about PROCESS vs OUTCOME. I totally understand there will not be fulfillment after winning any running, cycling, golf, basketball or any kind of thing. But would we be working towards that goal if we would knew that we won't ever achieve that in the future. We hope and preach to our selves that CHOP WOOD CARRY WATER, keep putting in the work and we will do great in future and amongst all of this the whole process gets lost. We stop sometime in near future & then realize we felt bad for not getting under 3 Hour mark or whatever it is for the individual. Isn't running 3:01 while enjoying fully not better than running 3:00:01 and feeling the worst for not getting under the mark. Keep redefining our goals is great for our selves & we must not attach our identity to any number or race. It is all just in our minds.
It simply boils downs to Control the Controllables. What we can control is our effort, attitude and energy we are giving to any activity. If we achieve, it is good and if we don't then analyze & learn from it & start putting in the work how to better it next time.
I keep preaching to myself and others as well that- All of the worth or attention has been created by my own cognition as I am living in this tiny world trail & ultra running, outside this nobody knows what the heck is this. And on this earth’s timeline, it doesn’t matter much but putting it to application is one of the toughest things to do. The main thing is also to cherish the process as well because at the end- even if one doesn’t achieve the goal, one still has the process. So better try to savor and enjoy it with the people you love an don’t try to be a ball of anxiety for them as well. I am trying but ain’t seeing the progress regarding this. This has been deeply embedded, I don't know if I will ever be able to troubleshoot this trait of mine.
But I am not in pursuit of anything as we as humans deal with Arrival Fallacy which tells us that we think that in future we will feel satisfied but as you know the life keeps on going. Also I have dealt with indemnity foreclosure as well when one's identity is wrapped in a single thing, then everything revolves around that. I still oscillate b/w going to any kind of event or just maintaining my discipline in order to become the best version of myself especially in running. Even though I believe in not going out much. Everything has a trade off and being a professional athlete in any sport brings & cuts down the life outside the sport but if an athlete is having fun, the it is all good I think so.
Right now I am preparing for a 100 KM Stadium Run(250 laps of 400 meter). I am hoping to run it under 7 hours 30 minutes in order to get a qualifier for Team India for 100 KM World Championships 2026.
I also wanted to move to USA but right now the chances seem 0% of moving to USA but I am pretty much okay with it as I can't keep dwelling on the past in the present as while thinking about the past & future, my present is also becoming my past and this is happening with every passing hour.
Don't you feel the people who deep dive to the core of their beings feel this much more than the people who aren't generally much aware?