Not All Pieces of Advice Works for Everyone
So, take everything with a grain of salt
Last past weekend, I ran my fifth marathon. Although it wasn’t my first, or second, or even my third, I still took it as seriously (if not, more seriously) than the others I’ve ran in the past. For me, this marathon was different because I had a very serious time goal in mind. I had also been training much longer and much harder than I did for the other ones. And during my training, I also did something else that was a bit new to my routine — I did a lot more research. Although I’ve studied up on best ways to train for a marathon before, I haven’t done so to the extent that I did this time around.
This time around, I looked at many different versions of various training plans rather than just relying on one single plan. I read up on the best types of foods to eat and read countless articles that shared a wealth of advice on what to do versus what not to do when marathon training. After looking at all of the different resources, tips, and tricks, the main thing that I noticed was that not all of them necessarily said the same thing. And not all of the different pieces of advice particularly worked for me.
Yes, there are surefire and steadfast pieces of advice that are timeless and frankly, just plain common sense. However, there are also pieces of advice that will maybe only work half of the time or only apply to certain scenarios or certain people. That being said,
We should know that not all pieces of advice works for everyone.
When it comes to advice, everyone has their own opinions on how to go about a specific situation. Some advice is extremely helpful and very much applicable, but some advice is also downright terrible and not for you. Knowing this, we have to keep in mind that everyone’s also had different experiences, therefore everyone offers up different kinds of advice based on those experiences.
So, take everything with a grain of salt.
Because what may have worked for one person won’t necessarily work for someone else. For example, I was getting drinks with two close friends the other night, telling them all about how my marathon went and just catching up on life in general. Both of them were planning to run the New York City Marathon this year, so we’ve been exchanging advice with each other about training for the better half of the year.
Though we had many overlapping and interchangeable pieces of advice for one another, we’ve also had completely different experiences throughout our training and used different training regimens that didn’t work for all three of us. All three of us are also on very different levels of running and have completely different goals in mind, so it wasn’t really apples to apples. The same thing can be said for any situation.
When it comes to giving advice to others or receiving advice from others, we have to acknowledge the fact that we’re all on different walks on life. We’re all in different life stages, on different timelines, and have our own personal experiences that are unique to us — which means that advice won’t always translate the same way to other people.
In running and in life, we’re all going at our own speeds with some distances being longer than others, so we have to go at our own pace and stop trying to catch up or compare ourselves to others. So, I’ll leave you with the best piece of advice that I’ve received when training marathon, which I think can apply to both running and life in general — and it’s this,
Run your own race.
Advice, though sometimes needed, isn’t an all encompassing rule to abide by. Only you know what you have or haven’t prepared for. Only you know what works for you and what doesn’t. Of course it’s always best practice to do your research, get other people’s opinions, and gain insight from past success stories, but at the same time, you also have to just go with your gut. So run your own race, in life and in running.
