The almost half a century old
short story by Richard Bach never ceases to amaze me.
Each time that I spend about 30
minutes reading this story cover to cover (yes, it’s short) about a seagull
(Jonathan Livingston) whose only desire in life is to improve every single day,
my brain always manages to release that feel good dopamine.
I finish the story and feel that reassurance;
yes this can be done, self-improvement is a continuous process and I have the
apparatus to practice it regularly- specifically in my running. Why, because it’s
easy to experiment in running and constantly strive for improvement. What’s the
worst that can happen? Nothing! All exercise is good. You’re already better and
improved after the workout than you were 45 minutes ago when sedentary.
Running for me has always been the
apparatus to experiment with physical and mental improvement; I don’t have to
justify the outcome to anyone but myself and I get those low doses of feel good
emotions every time a training runs goes well. After that good training
session, the reassurance of self-improvement stays with me, locked up but open
to my inspection for a sneak peek when I need a pat on the back.
How I wish that more focus was
put on this novella in schools and kids were made to understand, appreciate and
deeply analyse the intent with which Richard wrote this story. Maybe, there is
no better self-help inspirational book out there which in less than 30 minutes can fill you with purpose, teach you the virtues of hard work and the necessity
of self-reliance.
Well, Rudyard Kipling’s poem “IF”
comes pretty close which is less than a 5 minute read, especially the ending
which says:
“If you can
fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds’
worth of distance run,
Yours is the
Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is
more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Rudyard Kipling was a 4:30 miler in the 19th
century, so the ending is even more relatable and intense.
Returning to the story, Jonathan Livingston is an
aerial athlete- rebels, trains, fails, plans, improves and repeats it. He is
obsessed with improving. Possibly the most awe inspiring fictional bird. A
relentless spirit, who shows that training is an integral part of life and the be-all-and-end-all
in life is not just the monotonous survival that we have become so used to, but
something beyond, something that adds substance to the journey. This substance is
different for everyone and for Jonathan it is training, learning and improving.
Astonishingly, mental training which has become the
new buzzword in endurance sports and for which there are so many books now available,
is an omnipresent thought in Jonathan’s training process.
Just to give
an example, there is a paragraph in the story, which says, “Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip,” Jonathan would say, other
times, “is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break
the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too ...”.
Another
paragraph, “In the days that followed,
Jonathan saw that there was as much to learn about flight in this place as
there had been in the life behind him. But with a difference. Here were gulls
who thought as he thought. For each of them, the most important thing in living
was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they most loved to do, and
that was to fly. They were magnificent birds, all of them, and they spent hour
after hour every day practising flight, testing advanced aeronautics.”
I’ve read Matt Fitzgerald’s scintillating book (How
Bad Do You Want It?) which emphasises the importance of mental training in
endurance sports, and it was brilliant to see that almost 50 years ago Richard
was writing along similar lines about Jonathan’s mental training for becoming a better and stronger
(aerial) athlete!
It’s a marvelous short read, especially for
athletes. There are more nuggets of wisdom in that novella than many lengthy profound reads!
If you want to read the story then use the
link below:
Among my all time Top 10 pieces of writing.
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