Before I started studying for the LSAT, I used to run marathons and ultramarathons; I've even coached some people on how to get into running them. And for the two years that I've been studying for the LSAT, I found a lot of parallels between the LSAT (and law school process in general) and running a marathon.
They're both long stretches of a challenge.
They're both very difficult to do.
There's moments where you're feeling good and you're riding a high but then there's moments where you're not feeling so good and the momentum starts to die down.
But there's one lesson that I've learned from running marathons that I'd like to think would help anyone in a situation where things start to feel overwhelming: one mile at a time. When I used to run, I didn't think about the end of the run - I really only thought about the next mile. If I thought about the entire marathon, I would think to myself, "this shit is impossible!" But if I thought about just running one more mile, the marathon no longer felt impossible.
Recently I was rejected from my last waitlisted school and I felt very overwhelmed on top of the preparations for the October LSAT as well as managing my life outside of the LSAT. Everything felt impossible and I've felt very hopeless recently. But I know that if I stopped thinking about "the end" of this process (an end that no one can really predict unless I give up) and take it one day at a time, then things start to feel a little more possible - slowly but surely.
And I'm saying all of this because I've felt like absolute shit in this past month and I honestly don't know if I'm going to make it. And if my experiences with the LSAT are like anyone else's, then maybe the way that I try to cope and get through a hard time could work for someone else here also feeling overwhelmed with all of it.
So I pray that everyone who needs the strength to keep going another mile and another day gets that strength.
5 comments
What I’ve learned from life is that what happens, happens. While we think we can control the score we get, there are so many things that are outside of our control. A fight with a friend or family member before the test day can destroy your test date and taking a later test means less chances of getting in… At the end of the day, you do what you know you have to do and leave the rest to God.
Thank you for this... I am having such a hard time studying for the LSAT and I also will run my first half marathon on Oct so this was an excellent comparison...
You don't know how much i needed THIS. Thank you for sharing!
Running a half-marathon six days before my LSAT over here!
100% as a prior marathoner myself, I can completely relate to your post. Thank you for posting. I also remind myself when I started my workout journey. In the beginning I wasn't able to lift more than 5 lbs. Now I am lifting 20/30lbs. Its consistency. Showing up. Practice. We got this!