How To View Your Setback as an Opportunity

Recently I was sidelined from my running routine. A freakish pain happened in my big toe during a Saturday training run that forced me to walk the last mile of the run and led to a couple of weeks on the sidelines, walking and riding my trainer.  

Should’ve been no big deal. Thankful nothing like a stress fracture. A week or two of not running. How bad can that be? Well, ask any “runner”, and any day you’re told you CAN’T run is a bad day. And for someone who has struggled with tying her self-worth to how much she’s running and working out, this is very difficult.  I mean, first question people always ask me when they see me is “You run this morning?”  Or when I see family it’s, “You still running?  What big race do you have coming up?”  My identity is tied to my running.  

And so back to what do you do when you have a setback or encounter a roadblock? The first thing is we quickly revert to old thoughts and habits. At least I know I do. In this case, I was finding myself gravitating towards new weight loss schemes and quick fixes. I was fighting the urge to compare and let negative self-talk enter my mind.

BUT, I had to recognize what was going on. When I start down that path that only leads to destruction of all that God has done in my life, I pause, and remember I’m supposed to turn north! I had to be thankful for what I had.  I had to be thankful that I could still move everyday. I was able to lift some heavy weight and I tore it up on my trainer doing intervals.  I walked.  I surrounded myself with a community of women for 40 Days of Faith and Fitness.

In the end, maybe this wasn’t a setback or a roadblock. Maybe this was an opportunity to live out my verse of the year “throw off everything that hinders and run…” I had some time to take inventory and identify some of the hindrances I need to get rid of to run the race.

 

Do you feel like you’re facing a setback or a roadblock today?  May I suggest that it could be an opportunity?  

• Is there a lesson to be learned?  
  • For me, I still need to learn that my identity and my worth has nothing to do with what my physical body does or how it looks.  
• Do you need to make a change in your life?
  • I’m learning more and more about exercise and its affects on me as a “40-something”.  This gave me some time to explore some different ways to exercise.  
• Do your priorities need to be adjusted?
  • In times like these, I’m reminded how “things”, whether they are activities or possessions, to do lists or relationships, they can become idols in my life that takes my focus off of the One who matters most.

 

Tell me about a time you’ve had a setback that proved to be an opportunity.

When it comes to sports, do you prefer to be on the sidelines cheering or would you rather be out there playing?