No Chains Around My Feet

Book excerpt: This book closely examines how the enterprise of running mirrors the key facets of life. The author draws parallels between running and life so as to enhance the lessons that readers can draw from each of these phenomena. Running resembles life, and the latter carries a myriad of lessons for the former. This book is not about running per se, nor is it meant to be an all-encompassing self-help manual about life, though it contains these aspects to a certain degree. Such an undertaking would be preposterous in the least. You can, however, draw valuable lessons for personal mastery within organizational, societal, and familial relationships and other relationship contexts. The books purpose is to drive the dual message that invisible chains shackle an unexamined life and that the activity of runningcompetitively or notentails a lot of principles, processes, guidelines, theories, and lessons that can apply to everyday life experiences and enhance the human experience. Consequently, the book is meant for professional and social runners and those who appreciate running from the comfort of their couch, remote in hand. It explores the seemingly and misleadingly easy exercise of running as a source for profound lessons about the sometimes complex business of living.