My Love/Hate Relationship with Running

I’ll let you on a little secret. I don’t really like running.

However, about 3 days a week you might see me running around our local town.

Why?

What kind of torture am I putting myself through. I don’t have to run. There are plenty of other things I could be doing. There are definitely a ton of other things I’d prefer to be doing.

But I do it anyhow, and the feeling I get after I finally cool down and the sweat stops dripping is great!

That’s why I do it. I don’t do it for the sore legs, or to set a new record (although I wouldn’t complain if I did). I do it for the feeling I get afterwards.

Isn’t that true with most things in life. We know what we want and we have a rough idea of how it will feel when we get to the finish line, but the question is, are we willing to give up a bit of discomfort and time to feel that magical feeling.

Will scrolling through Facebook for the 1000th time today be rewarding? How about watching one more show on Netflix?

Call it grit, hustle, persistence – call it whatever you want. The truth is that nothing compares to the feeling you get when you do something you know is good, but requires some effort to get there.

Perhaps that’s why lottery winners go broke. They never put the effort in to attain it, so the feeling of satisfaction they get is fleeting or they feel like they don’t deserve it. Their perception becomes reality.

The next time there is something you know you should do but you don’t want to, imagine the end result and how you’ll feel. Then get up and do something about it!

Awkward Exercise

This summer I started running to get some exercise. I haven’t been as consistent recently, but I was doing it nonetheless.

One of the first things that came to mind when I started running was what I looked like to other people who might see me run by. After a while, that concern started to fade from my mind.

The reason? I realized that I’m the one out there exercising and trying to be in shape. Most of the people who are watching me and might think something probably aren’t exercising. So I guess they can think what they want but it doesn’t mean much until they get out there and do it too.

That’s the way it should be with a lot of things in my life. So often we let other people control what we do based on what they might think about us, but they aren’t in our place.

Oftentimes, others may be speculating on things they don’t know or understand. We end up holding ourselves back based on what others think, or worse yet, what we think they’re thinking.

When you start something new, you may start questioning yourself. It seems easier to just believe that others are thinking the same negative thoughts, even when they may not be.

You need to remind yourself why you started doing what you’re doing in the first place and keep on going. If what you started will have a positive result in the end, you have to do it for yourself.