The Best Quotes from The Pursuit of Endurance by Jennifer Pharr Davis

Several years ago I read Cheryl Strayed's Wild while visiting family in Western North Carolina. My sister, Beth, an avid backpacker and hiker, told me about a woman who hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in under 47 days. "Impossible." I remember saying to her. "It takes months to hike the AT." Beth persisted in telling me about Jennifer Pharr Davis, who had recently won a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award for setting the Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail in 2011. Following my conversation with Beth, I read numerous hiking narratives because I wanted to understand how it was humanly possible to hike 2, 189 miles in less than two months.

In the dozen or so books I read about hiking, I learned about endurance, persistence, grit and transformation. My interest in these topics goes back to my childhood and a volleyball team my mom wouldn't let me quit (but that's a story for another time). In May as the final weeks of school wrapped up for the year, I read two new books The Pursuit of Endurance: Harnessing the Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience by Jennifer Pharr Davis and North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail by Scott Jurek. Both were exceptionally written and awe inspiring, but I related more with aspects of Pharr Davis's book because of my connections to Western North Carolina. Not only does my family live there, but I lived there, taught there, hiked there, birthed my children there.

This week, I returned to The Pursuit of Endurance because the well-researched approach and embedded narrative resonated with me. I marked passages and selected quotes for motivation and inspiration. Here I'm sharing some of my favorites because I bet they'll resonate with you, too, especially if you need a little Monday Motivation (or any other day of the week motivation). Hopefully, you'll take away not only a quote for motivation, but a desire to read the full book.

Photo Credit: Ethan Boss 

Quotes for when it feels like you're failing and life all around you is crumbling

"When it feels as if you are constantly losing and everything good is slipping away, it is difficult to muster the strength to keep trying again and again. But endurance is the ability to continue despite past results and with disregard for future outcomes (107)."

"When you have failed over and over again, the decision to keep moving forward is not derived from reason but driven by hope (108)."

"If you never fail then you haven't set your goals high enough (139)." 

"Don't be afraid of failure. Endurance is failure after failure, after failure (295)."

Quotes for learning more about yourself

"The thing about a long, grueling journey is that it strips away who you're not and allows you to discover what's left--or who's left (165)."

"One damn good reason to pursue endurance--and choose suffering--is to get to know yourself inside and out. When you reach that moment where you gave more than you thought you had and accomplished more than you thought you could, it's clear who you are (165)."

"The best way to move forward is not to forsake the past, but to forgive it--and yourself (174)."

Quotes for when you're judging yourself or others

"Go outside, take a walk with someone different from you (295)."

"My rule of thumb is that you never judge someone else's pace or form because you don't know how far they've come and what they're still planning to do (299)."

"The essence of endurance will never be defined by rules and categories; it will be distinguished by the stories of the unique individuals who blaze the trail 293)." 

"The hurt we experience in life might never fully go away; it could ebb and flow for an eternity. You can make progress and appreciate the times when life isn't much of a struggle. And you can pray, and cry, and wrestle through the rest (293)." 

"It behooves us to not come to quick conclusions about other people's paths and instead approach each individual with encouragement and compassion. We might be on different trails, but we are all mid-journey (300)." 

Quotes for when you feel like you can't keep going

"When life feels hopeless, or unfair or completely out of my control, I remember the new opportunities and experiences and encounters that arise when you are willing to take one more step (201)."

"We exist only as long as we persist. And there is confounding hope and limitless possibility in our ability to rise up, change direction, and take one more step (302)."

"It is okay to fall short, it is okay to let people down, it is okay to hurt and suffer, it is okay to stop when you can't go any farther. But don't give up on yourself, your goals, or the people around you (296)."

Quotes for remembering that you have a choice

"Endurance isn't accepting the trail you're on, it's choosing it (245)."

"Our resilience is proved in trying circumstances and exhibited by accepting a challenge. Choosing to tackle difficult situations will help us better navigate the ones that are forced on us (293)."

"Feeling stuck is no excuse for staying where you are. Life is hard; struggle is guaranteed, but you can exercise your right to choose where and how to struggle (299)."

Photo Credit: Ethan Boss

Quotes for remembering that YOU MATTER

"You can't let public opinion determine the worth of your journey (281)." 

"Endurance, even amid a competition, is still an individual journey. Everyone takes part in a unique struggle and at some point, you will need to unlock your own secrets in order to keep going (198)."

"You can't let public opinion determine the worth of your journey (281)."  

"I remind myself that sometimes you are so consumed by the task at hand that you don't realize that you are on your way to accomplishing something amazing (201)."

"The AT emits wisdom.
There is a palpable maturity
that wafts
 through the ancient
 granite and the exposed,
gnarled roots of the spruce trees (132)."

Read my review of Becoming Odyssa for Sip & Slice Blog.

January 2014 Reads

Since December doesn't count for my 52 books in 52 weeks reading journey, I'll begin my notations and reflections about the books I read this month.  You can read more about my decision to begin this journey here.

The first book I read in 2014 was 46 Days:  Keeping Up with Jennifer Pharr Davis on the Appalachian Trail by Brew Davis, and really my decision for it being the first book to read came from my impatience in waiting for Called Again to arrive in the mail.  You see, while I was visiting my family in Western North Carolina during Christmas break, I learned about Jennifer Pharr Davis from my sister, Beth (who is also a hiker).  While we were in North Carolina I finished reading Wild and talked to Beth about how much I was enjoyed Strayed's journey of her thru-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.  Beth grew more interested in the memoir and then told me that she heard of a woman from the Asheville area who had hiked the entire Applachain Trail in 46 days. Naturally, I was intrigued, so Beth and I spent the next hour or so searching the internet for information about this woman who hiked the AT in 46 days.  I found her blog, and since I'm a blogger and hiker, too, I added it to my regular reading list. This month there was even a post by her husband who compared his wife's first book Becoming Odyssa to Cheryl Strayed's Wild.  I encourage you to check it out.

Upon returning home to Lexington, I immediately checked our local Lexington libraries for copies of Called Again, but they were all checked out, and I didn't want to wait, so I used a gift card I received at Christmas to order the book.  Still impatient to read about her story, I looked for an e-version, and that's when I learned about the book written by her husband.  I promptly purchased, downloaded, and proceeded to read 46 days in its entirety in a single evening.  I appreciated the details about the amount of calories she consumed per day, the number of miles she hiked, and the lack of sleep she endured all to accomplish her goal of setting the record for fastest thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

When Called Again:  A Story of Love and Triumph by Jennifer Pharr Davis arrived in the mail a few days later, I felt already familiar with the story and the details and was able to enjoy the author's writing and reflection of the journey.  I relished in the descriptions of the places along the trail because I have hiked sections of the AT in Georgia and North Carolina.  I read this book in exactly one week.

Knowing I was leaving for a week long work related trip, I decided to grab a longer book to enjoy on the plane and in the evenings at my hotel.  A friend had previously recommended The Aviator's Wife to me, so that was next on my January reading list.  I started reading it the Saturday before leaving on my trip, and honestly, spent the entire day struggling to enjoy it.  I kept talking about it with my husband who reminded me--"you know--it's okay not to like a book!"  I decided to give it a few more chapters before setting it aside in search of something I would enjoy more.  I'm glad I kept with it because by the half way point, it became much more interesting and engaging to me.  I still wouldn't rank it at the top of my personal favorites, but I'm glad I read it, and I did enjoy it by the end because I liked the characters and the time period.  This book took me a week and half, and I finished it right after returning home from my week in Colorado.

Yet another trip was on my calendar, so I checked our bookshelves at home for books I hadn't yet read.  Luckily, my husband is also a reader, so there's always something waiting on the shelves for me.  I pulled Girl Interrupted for my plane ride to Washington D.C..  By the first night I had finished this short (and excellent) memoir by Susanna Kaysen.  Topics of mental health have been intersesting to me since my college days and all my psyhology/counseloing courses.

Obviously, I couldn't be on a trip and out of reading material, so I purused my saved New York Times articles and book reviews for something I might enjoy.  Cheryl Strayed's review of Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala immediately caught my interest, so I decided to give my e-reader another try on this one.  The rich and powerful story of Deraniyagla losing her entire family in the 2004 tsunami was beautifully written, taking me into the author's thoughts and life for the past 9-10 years.  Her sons were just slightly older than mine at the time of their death, and her husband, an academic, only slightly older than mine.  The story was heart wrenching, but I couldn't put it down.  Something inside me needed to know Deraniyagala would work through her grief and that she would share that process in the memoir.