I was reading a book earlier this week which brought up the poster of “Keep Calm and Carry on”. There are a lot of popular things you can buy these days with the caption of “Keep Calm…”. It was originally created in 1939 on a motivational poster produced by the British government in preparation for World War II. The poster was intended to raise the morale of the British public, which was threatened by widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities. Over 2 million of these posters were printed, but never made it to the public. Then in the year 2000, one of them was discovered at Barter Books. Since then it has taken off by a number of private companies, and has many other modern meanings attached to it. It really does speak reality. Everything in life is busy, hectic, and we don’t always know how we are going to handle all of this. Then we need to keep working on our own health, and trying to exercise, and eat healthy as well. You get to the point where you don’t know how you are going to handle all of this. So, for starters, it really is best if you Keep Calm, and then put your head down, and carry on. Our run club group is getting ready to take off for one of our Sunday runs. We are ready to “Carry on”. Challenges always pop up during our days. It can include our schedules, and not having enough time to get everything done. It can include the weather, which can delay many things, and plans for what we may have wanted to do.
Here I am with Sarah, my twin daughters, Molly and Megan, and their “brother from another mother”, Noah Hauck. We are lined up at Disney in January to do the half marathon, the first one for the 3 kids. It was cold. Low 30’s, and we had to stand outside for well over 2 hours waiting to start. We were freezing. We are huddled together to try and stay warm, and at the same time, try to keep a smile on our face. In essence, we had to “keep calm and carry on”.
My son Nick this week finally broke 2 minutes for the 800 meter race on the track. For years he has been trying, but could not break that 2 min barrier. We talked several days before then, and basically told him to just relax, and do the best he can. Whatever will be will be. The more uptight he would get about it, the worse his times would be. He finally did it Wednesday night. He ran a 1:58:71! How did he do it? Deep down, he finally relaxed, and believed in himself. He kept calm, and carried on!
Training partners can help keep you going. They can help keep you calm. They can provide encouragement. It is a 2 way street though. You have to provide encouragement and presence as well.
Yoga can also help you keep calm. Here some of our run club members practice yoga at the time of the run! Way to go Jill, Paula, and Amanda! You also have to have fun. If you don’t make your goals fun, then they just become another stress, another deadline, or another commitment that you can’t keep, which just then adds more stress to your life. We are trying to ease the stress in our life, not create more! Bottom Line:
Words from the past that definitely still have meaning and motivation today. The original intent is not the same, but we can all learn from it. We can all remember to follow in our everyday endeavors. It is an important component of trying to Strive to Survive. Keep moving everybody, and “keep calm and carry on”!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3854
