Affirmations - Huentitán's ravine

In Guadalajara, there is a natural trail road in a ravine (Huentitán’s Barranca) where you can exercise; it is about 10 kilometers long with an ascent/descend of around 500 meters.

The trail begins at the top of the ravine; it is not straight, but rather zigzags down the ravine’s hillside. Certain areas are more inclined than others. The trail road has a historic bridge at its halfway point where you can take a break.

The path back is difficult; go back and ascend those 500 meters. As a side note, each curve of the path has a painted number in the stones indicating the number of the curve where you are currently. If I am not wrong, it seems that I saw the number 64.

After this little introduction, every time I go to that route and walk to the starting point, the physical effort becomes arduous and exhausting; all I wish to do is get to the top and finish this challenge.

I begin counting the amount of curves in a regressive manner, 59..58..57, and suddenly fatigue strikes in. I wait a few minutes to recover my breath before continuing the ascent. However, every time I push myself to keep going and try to deceive my mind to mitigate the fatigue, I tell myself something like, Another curve and I’ll stop to rest. With this, I’ll be able to ascend for another ten curves before stopping.

That encouragement in my thoughts motivates me to put in extra effort. When I was sick and didn’t feel like programming, I told myself, I’ll do a couple of lines more and then take a break.

I feel that these affirmations might assist you overcome challenging barriers and put in extra effort when you think you’re not capable of doing so.

This short story is part of the IndieWeb Carnival for February; thanks to Joe for selecting this topic and hosting this initiative.