Taking Leaps of Faith Are Scary — but Necessary

Such leaps build confidence and inspire more courage

Merre Larkin
5 min readSep 5, 2023
Marathon medals
Photo by author

It was 2010, the first year that it was offered. I didn’t know until I went online to sign up for the Boston Marathon in the fall of 2009. It would be my 5th Boston, so I knew the drill.

However, the website said you could sign up for Boston (if you qualified, which I did), AND you also could sign up simultaneously for the Big Sur Marathon. Boston on Monday, Big Sur on Sunday, referred to as Boston 2 Big Sur.

Should I? Could I actually do it? I had no idea. I told myself I’d think about it. But I needed to sign up soon, or I’d lose my bid for a spot running Boston. So I did it. I took what felt like a giant leap of faith in myself.

I do this from time to time. A lot, actually. I firmly believe we all should. We are all capable of much more than we think we are. I know I am, and I’ve worked with many people who’ve achieved amazing feats, not knowing if they could or would. Sometimes, you need to push yourself to try.

You know the old adage, you don’t know until you try.

It’s hard to do, though. I get that. But when you try for something that feels out of reach, and you achieve it, it feels like you can conquer the world. I think we all need that…

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Merre Larkin

Writer of nonfiction (memoir, essays), fiction, and poetry. Life/writing coach. Educator. Marathoner. Avid reader. Here to share, here to learn.