Since January of this past year, I have been running a lot. I have found that running is when I seem to do the best thinking. I suppose it's something about letting my mind run free as my body seemingly is doing just that as well. Regardless, I always sense this inherent dread at the end of my run as I am forced to run up a rather steep street "Main Street." I have now calculated that this specific street is exactly .5 miles long. This is just short enough for me to try to make it up to the top without dying. However, it is also too long to make it...all the way up (at least not with careful training.) I have noticed that whether walking to the end or running to the end, my thoughts tend to generate some interesting content. Though nothing is streamlined, it brings about some interesting topics of discovery. A few thoughts this morning were as such: 

1. I cannot wait to drink rootbeer up at the top

2. I think next year I should organize classroom jobs in a way that is simultaneously teaching them about our judicial branches.

3. I'm reading two separate books and although they are not connect, they are a bit connected in every way. 

4. I really could go for some waffles right now. 

5. Finding my inner strength is what this hill is all about. 

And then in the last .3 miles this morning, I began to think about Fred Rogers and what I believe to be one of his finest quotes but also the most difficult. "Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else." Inherently what I began to think about is this overwhelming idea of daily life and perspective. Perspective which decides how we will spend out day, how we interprete the voices of others, how we make sense of the world around us but most importantly our attitude towards the beauty of life. I think sometimes at the end of my run, I see it as the end and thus my willpower begins to dwindle. I think I am at the end and I lose a little hope because I realize that I have been running for a while, that my journey is almost over. But maybe, just maybe, I need to start thinking of the end of my running journey as the beginning. For wouldn't that be magical to realize that if I'm now at the beginning, I can continue with the same kind of zest as I started. Isn't it the beginning of the other wonderful activities I will encounter during the rest of my day? 

Wouldn't it be interesting if we viewed all endings as beginnings. For perhaps it is only perspective that really needs to change in order to prevent burnout. Because if we treated all the ends as beginnings, burnout would cease to exist and mindset would change completely.