{"id":413,"date":"2012-08-07T15:34:25","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T15:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=413"},"modified":"2012-08-07T15:34:25","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T15:34:25","slug":"if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=413","title":{"rendered":"If"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/font>“Get your rest. It\u2019s vital to life. But don\u2019t use \u2018rest\u2019 as a cover up for fear, cowardice, irresponsibility, laziness, wastefulness, or indulgence.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Yours Truly<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

Below is a piece entitle \u201cIF.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

A friend and mentor of mine introduced it to me years ago, and he brings it up periodically \u2013 just enough to allow me to use it to gauge my progress into manhood. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

If you can keep your head when all about you <\/font> <\/p>\n

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; <\/font> <\/p>\n

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, <\/font> <\/p>\n

But make allowance for their doubting too; <\/font> <\/p>\n

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, <\/font> <\/p>\n

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, <\/font> <\/p>\n

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, <\/font> <\/p>\n

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;<\/font> <\/p>\n

<\/font>  <\/p>\n

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; <\/font> <\/p>\n

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim; <\/font> <\/p>\n

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster <\/font> <\/p>\n

And treat those two impostors just the same; <\/font> <\/p>\n

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken <\/font> <\/p>\n

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, <\/font> <\/p>\n

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, <\/font> <\/p>\n

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;<\/font> <\/p>\n

<\/font>  <\/p>\n

If you can make one heap of all your winnings <\/font> <\/p>\n

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, <\/font> <\/p>\n

And lose, and start again at your beginnings, <\/font> <\/p>\n

And never breathe a word about your loss; <\/font> <\/p>\n

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew <\/font> <\/p>\n

To serve your turn long after they are gone, <\/font> <\/p>\n

And so hold on when there is nothing in you <\/font> <\/p>\n

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’<\/font> <\/p>\n

<\/font>  <\/p>\n

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  <\/font> <\/p>\n

Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch, <\/font> <\/p>\n

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, <\/font> <\/p>\n

If all men count with you, but none too much; <\/font> <\/p>\n

If you can fill the unforgiving minute <\/font> <\/p>\n

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, <\/font> <\/p>\n

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, <\/font> <\/p>\n

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!<\/font> <\/p>\n

— Rudyard Kipling<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>  <\/p>\n

The last \u201cIF\u201d is what is haunting me currently.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Can I fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds\u2019 worth of distance run?<\/font> <\/p>\n

I\u2019m training for Tough Mudder<\/a> right now, which will take place in Austin on October 6th. It is serving me as a living analogy for this question. As I train, I am in a constant state of deciding whether or not I will give 100% or not, whether I will push through some element of the training and feel the victory of having done so, or collapse into \u201crest\u201d and feel the ease and comfort of compromise.<\/font> <\/p>\n

In the long run, the Tough Mudder matters very little. But what it represents for me right now matters very much. <\/font> <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all been given about 75 years (give or take) of 60 second runs. I\u2019m 44. <\/font> <\/p>\n

Join me in developing a massive distaste for collapsing into ease. May God Himself make us all uncomfortable with comfort. <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Get your rest. It\u2019s vital to life. But don\u2019t use \u2018rest\u2019 as a cover up for fear, cowardice, irresponsibility, laziness, wastefulness, or indulgence.\u201d \u2013 Yours Truly   Below is a piece entitle \u201cIF.\u201d A friend and mentor of mine introduced it to me years ago, and he brings it up periodically \u2013 just enough to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christs-mission","category-my-life","category-the-best-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sO6nf-if","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}