Every once in a while, we choose a goal or shoot for a dream—and things don't go as we've planned. That, I hope you know, is absolutely OK. Life has a way of throwing curveballs, and choosing the right moments to chase (and knowing when to shift gears) is all part of the adventure that awaits you. This is why we've centered our new Fall Collection of Motivate Wraps around this theme. That now is your time, no matter what, to collect the moments you so deserve. Today on the blog, our last in the series of guest posts focused on your moments, is Katherine with a few words about choosing your moment wisely:

At the beginning of 2018, I took on the challenge of marathon training for the first time. As anyone who’s trained for one knows, it completely and utterly changes and consumes your life. And with each run I’ve gone on, I’ve found myself focusing on one thing and one thing only—Boston. So when I think about my “moment,” BQing this year was going to be it.

The problem is that nobody tells you that you may have to adjust your moment. Through all of the positive affirmations and the pump up quotes and the “you can push through anything” looping through your brain to keep you going, there’s no warning that your moment, the one you’ve centered 24 weeks of training around, may need some tweaking.

I had signed up for two marathons this year. The first would be my very first marathon ever, Colfax, and the second would be Chicago. My plan was to run Colfax in around 4 hours, and then shave off the extra half hour for Chicago. This BQ would be my moment.

After 24 weeks of training, the big day finally came. It was time for my first marathon. I wasn’t sure if this would be an utter failure or if I’d surprise myself by running a BQ. Long story short, Colfax didn’t go as planned. As pacers began passing me every other mile, I quickly watched my moment of a BQ slip away, and I cried as I crossed the finish line at 4:38.03. 

I should’ve felt proud, but I couldn’t shake that I needed to shave an hour off my marathon time for Chicago in just three months. A BQ was not mine, and Colfax was not my moment.

Fast forward a month to the start of my training for Chicago. I was more determined than ever to hit my BQ. Challenged with 3 months to speed up, I was chomping at the bit to make this moment happen. But somewhere along the way, things started to go haywire. I was struggling with IT Band Friction Syndrome, which is a complicated way to say certain muscles weren’t firing in my leg, and my knee cap was rubbing against my IT Band.

But I was still fighting to make this race happen.

When I wrote the initial draft of this post for Momentum just a few weeks ago, I had every intention of making Chicago my moment. BQ or no BQ, I was choosing Chicago as my moment. I was going to focus on “fighting to get to Chicago, to get through Chicago, and then stuffing my face with all the pizza.” Except last Thursday, I dropped out of Chicago. I gave it the good fight, but my body was not going to make it through. I played it smart, not selfish. And with that, I chose to switch my moment from Chicago to my comeback.

If anything, all of this has shown me one thing—you need to choose your moment. My Colfax time was far from a BQ. My knee is in pain. I’ve had to drop out of running multiple races, including Chicago. But with each one of these heartbreaks, I’ve picked myself up, adjusted, and I’ve chosen to discover new moments within the wreckage of my original goals.

So I challenge you to choose your moment...want it more than anything. Your moment is going to come when you make the conscious choice to accept it into your life, and then push forward to make it happen. The path to your moment may take twists and turns and flips and flops and alley-oops and spirals, but it’s up to you to choose to make sure you get there. And I hope you fight like hell to get there.

...and we'll fight with you, too. We're so proud of Katherine and her ability to recognize that a new moment was needed, and that you never have to really give up on a moment. Setbacks happen, and if you choose to adjust, we believe you'll find the ability to choose wisely your next great moment. And that's why we created the new Fall Collection of Motivate Wraps. Because everyone needs their own cheerleader, and we're ready to be yours. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, and tag #momentumjewelry so we can see your moments.