I had a strange dream the other night. I had just finished running my latest race, though I don’t remember the distance, but I finished. Felt good.
I changed clothes. The work was done. I slipped on my Adidas slides and started catching up with other runners. Talking about the day. The highs. The lows. The usual post-race therapy session. Then it was time to leave. Except I couldn’t. I needed my slides. And my drop bags.
I found the drop bags. No problem. But I couldn’t find my slides. I kept looking. Checked with the race director. No luck. Check over at the main aid station/lost and found, again, no luck. Circling back to both a few times, like opening and closing the refrigerator at home, looking for something to eat, yet finding nothing new whatsoever from when I looked five minutes earlier! Of course, being me, I also got distracted/delayed in my search by more conversations. More stories. More “how’d it go for you?”
And the whole time, I was wearing the slides. That’s when it clicked.
Sometimes the hardest part isn’t finishing the thing. The race. The project. The season. It’s knowing when to stop searching for what you think you still need and realizing you already have it within you.
So, if you’ve finished something meaningful, you don’t have to turn it into a new goal by Tuesday. You’re allowed to just… be done for a minute.