I’ve come to realize lately that I need to somehow tap some of the Keep Going® spirit of the Energizer® Bunny.  Let me assure you that even though I am the Keep Going Blogger, this is not a shameless promotion.  I find that Keep Going is a perfect term reflecting the state of mind that I need to be in right now, but over the past couple of weeks have found it a little harder to maintain.

As many of you know, I’m walking in two 3-Day for the Cure events this year and they are pretty far apart.  Over three months apart if you want to get down to it.  As my fund raising is more than done for both walks, it would be easy enough for me to just coast to the next event.  I could stop fund raising and I could probably greatly reduce my training and still do alright.  On the surface, that seems like it wouldn’t be a terrible thing, I have set my goals and achieved them.  That’s a good thing, right?

Over the past couple of years I’ve listened to a lot of stories about how people have fought breast cancer and sometimes won and sometimes lost their battles.  I hear these stories and am brought to remember why it is that I walk and do the fund raising.  I have said before that I walk for my wife, so that she never has to fight breast cancer, but I also walk for all of these people that have shared their stories with me.  These stories keep me going and make me want to continue on with what I’m doing without a break.  Maybe you feel like this too.

But if I were to do that, it wouldn’t necessarily be super great either.  I mean, what good is working so that my wife doesn’t have to fight breast cancer if I don’t get to spend any time with her?  I love walking in the 3-Day and I love what good Susan G. Komen can do against this disease, but I love my family too.  This is where the balance comes in.

A good friend of mine named Dale Chiapuzio told me a while ago about a running discussion that he has with his son.  His son just went to college this year and before he went Dale told him, “If you want to party that’s fine, you’re going to college I expect you to party some.  But don’t overdo it.  The same thing goes for studying.  Study so that you can get good grades but don’t study so much that you become a hermit.  Life is all about balance.”  And it is a balance.  If you do one thing too much it will always be to the detriment of others, no matter what part of your life it is.

That’s why when I haven’t done training walks for almost two weeks after the Boston walk I’m not concerned.  I’m taking my son to an amusement park this weekend instead of walking, but on the flip side of that I just sent out invites to a charity poker tournament that I’m doing at the end of the month to help my sister with her fund raising.  I know that I will get back into training soon enough, but I need to remember to enjoy the time I am taking off instead of stressing about how many miles I have walked.

I’m not saying that you should stop whatever you are doing in your efforts for the 3-Day, quite the contrary!  Keep doing this immensely good thing, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I know that there will be months where it seems like there ar more training walks and fund raisers than regular life, and occasionally that’s ok.  There are some of you that will want to do more than one event a year, some that may want to do more than 5.  I’m not going to say you shouldn’t do that, you’re awesome for doing so much in this battle.  That being said, regain that balance where you can, don’t stress about missing a training walk every now and then.  It’s ok to take a little bit of time off, we’re all in this together and one of us will jump in and fight for you while you maintain your balance.

Remember, you’re walking for all those embraces, anniversaries, and other cherished moments with loved ones.  Keep Going so that you can still have those wonderful moments with loved ones in years to come.  Keep Going with balance so that you can enjoy those moments right now.