"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." - John F. Kennedy

Most often you hear people say Never Look Back. Always press forward. But today I was looking back. I was looking back for encouragement not looking back as though I was going to turn into stone rather looking for motivation.

I was running knowing that Andy was going to be coming up right behind me at any time. Just the thought of him driving down the road puts a little more flame in the fire. 

Ultimately it was a good run. One can not explain it. You can never predict when you are going to have one of those. I wish I was able to share some scientific theory or physiological phenomenon that our body goes through that calculates a perfect run. I don't have any equation that depicts when we are going to have a perfect run, it has nothing to do with a full moon or the planets aligned perfectly, there is not a miracle meal or an outfit that provides a super hero style run.

It is Random.

It is Unexplainable.

The perfect run is perfect because it can not be calculated, predicted or interpreted. 

There are of course items that benefit a quality run. Today it was cooler temperatures, a soft breeze, new ear buds for my Ipod and my personal favorite... Andy coming up from behind at any minute.

The reason so many people say not to look back is because we have a difficult time realigning our focus. It is like being outside in the brightness of the day then coming into a building without light. It takes time to readjust our eyes, we have a hard time trying to re-focus them. We get caught up in our past mistakes, mishaps and blunders. We can be cruising right along and one quick look back we are suddenly in a pit. We are dazed and confused and have now lost our direction.

I look back a lot. Today I looked over my shoulder waiting for encouragement to drive up.

I ran a little faster knowing that what was behind me was going to be in front of me. 

It is good to look back if we can grab something from over our shoulder to pull us forward. There are a lot of great things from behind us that can build us and encourage us to be stronger and more successfully in our present and future days. Stay focused when you do look back, Know what you are looking for and let it be a building block for you rather than a stumbling block!

Quotes on Looking Back

• Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
• I think that we honor ourselves by honoring our past.
   
• The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it.

 Anita