Breathe Success

A track star with three inhalers in the fight for success. When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful

The watch read 39:57—thirty-nine minutes and fifty-seven seconds. The clock was three seconds away from setting me free. The run was almost over and my agenda for the day accomplished. The finish line was less than nine strides away. All I had to do was lay back, hold my head up, keep my eyes fixed forward, and let my legs wind to a stop as the clock ran through forty minutes. All of a sudden my lungs decided it was time it went rogue. It no longer wanted to put up with my constant push past its capacity.

My legs came to a complete halt, my left hand found a resting spot on my left knee while my right hand tended to the aid of my mouth. I didn’t know what was going on, but soon enough I realized my lungs were not to blame here. They had been attacked. Asthma was the culprit and it left me gasping for air. I wanted so bad to breathe. I fought and fought to keep my lungs operating after that sudden asthma attack. Never had I fought for anything as bad as I did to breathe during those moments I stood in that spot long after the clock echoed forty minutes. The ambulance came and took me away.

That episode stuck with me. It reaffirmed words I had heard countless times during my runs but never had a concrete grasp of. All my life, I was pursuing success inefficiently my whole life. I didn’t want to succeed as much as I wanted to live, so why was I pursuing it at all? I wasn't going to reach it until I committed my life to it. You will only be successful when it is as essential to your life as that very breath keeping you alive:

When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful

- Eric Thomas

—Lincoln Daniel: Editor of the Inspire the World, Technology and You, andSucceed Together collections on Medium. Creator of @AcePlate: Learn more at AcePlate.com

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