Becoming your future self, one step at a time...

Happy new year!! I'm going to take you waaaay back to the Luther College womens track and field team..

The year is 1997. I come around the bend of the indoor track and the noise hits me—people cheering, halogen lights glaring overhead, the air thick and dry. Running a 3000-meter race indoors is brutal.

The passing of years reminds me of that race—circling the same track again and again, crossing the line, starting another lap. Sometimes you lose count. Your feet turn over one after the other, almost on their own. You're not always sure how many laps remain.

Some laps feel easy.

Your stride is smooth, your breath steady. You feel strong. Your focus is sharp, fixed on what's ahead. Everything clicks, and it feels like you could accomplish anything. These are the years when you're productive and victorious—when you're proud of your progress.

Other laps feel hard.

Your legs are heavy. Your breath comes ragged. Your lungs burn. Every step takes effort. Your inner critic fixates on everyone ahead of you, whispering that you should quit. Why bother when you're at the back of the pack anyway? These are the years filled with obstacles—when it feels impossible to get ahead and tempting to abandon your goals.

Here's what's predictable: there will be another lap, another chance to circle the track. Each time you cross the line and begin again, there's a small burst of energy. A sense of freshness.

But it's not a reinvention—it's a continuation.

You don't suddenly become a different runner in the middle of a race. The way you move through any lap is shaped by the training you did before the race started and by every lap you've already run.

Your habits come with you. Your pacing, your self-talk, your dedication—they shape your stamina and drive. They determine the kind of runner you become.

Each new year isn't about suddenly becoming someone new.

It's about practicing being who you want to be—again and again—so that over time, that way of moving becomes familiar. Natural.

The person you'll be in future years is being shaped right now. Not by resolutions or perfect plans, but by how you show up when the lap feels ordinary... or difficult.

One lap at a time, you will become wiser, steadier, and stronger than before. 

As you look back on 2025 and forward into 2026, who are you becoming? What do you want to do more of? What do you want to stop or do less of? Who are you becoming, one lap at a time? 

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