In Decision
If I could make up my mind the way housekeeping makes up hotel beds, I would be in pretty good shape. Perfectly tucked and creased. Lumps in all the right places.
Unfortunately, my decision-making ability isn’t always quite that smooth.
Well, that’s not entirely true. When it comes to deciding between, say, Tagalongs or Thin Mints, the decision is easy. Both. And therein lies my problem.
There’s a sprint tri coming up in June that I really want to enter. It will be my first tri in almost two years, and I know what I need to do to train for it. I’ve done it before. However, for me, training for a race means I need to eat clean, stop wining, and stick diligently to the training schedule hanging on my fridge.
I have what’s called a competing commitment. I am committed to entering this race (and, once I’m out there, to placing). And I am also committed to Tagalongs and merlot. I can’t have both.
Fortunately, our minds are remarkable things. This is fortunate, that is, once we understand how they work, especially in terms of decision-making. About 90% of our decisions are already made for us—by our subconscious mind. The beliefs we have about ourselves and the world are “programmed” in us when we’re young by our families, culture, education, geographic location, etc. Are these beliefs right or wrong? That depends. How are they serving you?
Take me, for instance. I grew up with the belief that I was shy and non-athletic. I believed I was made to read books, draw pictures, hang out alone. Most of my circumstances supported this belief and when I tried to participate in an activity contrary to it, I usually failed.
Fast forward 20 or so years. A little voice inside me tells me there are things I want do. Like teach and public speak. Swim and run and ride my bike really fast. But these things aren’t “me.” I can’t see myself doing them—until I change my mind.
Once I decide I can do these things, I start honoring that voice. I see me doing what I want to do, and I start doing it. If my subconscious can be programmed by others when I’m young, it can be reprogrammed by me when I’m old(er). I can retrain my mind to think about me in a different way.
I became a teacher. A public speaker (however big or small the audience). A runner, biker, swimmer. I changed the way I saw myself. I decided I could do it. And I did.
So why has it been so hard for me to commit to training for the June tri? Until this week, I hadn’t fully resolved to do it. My mind wasn’t all in. It was still drawn to the boxes of Girl Scout cookies hidden in my freezer behind a wall of frozen vegetables and chicken.
Now that I reached the first step, I can take the second. The first act of deciding is in the mind. The follow through is in the body. Both require action. I’m finally in.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 9 so far )A Trying Time
I once read that it took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts to make the light bulb before he finally got it right. 10,000. Can you imagine?
If you are near a mirror, take a look at your eyebrows. I’ll wait.
Can you count the number of hairs in just one? Seems like too many to count, at least in one sitting, doesn’t it? There are about 450. Edison failed more than 22 times that number. Nevertheless, he didn’t give up.
Think you could try—and fail—at something more times than you really want to count?
I thought about this the other day when my alarm went off way before dawn on sprint day. Now sprints, I just love sprints. Really I do. But I haven’t yet reached my goal speed. I’ve tried. And failed. And tried again. Once a week, for months. Sometimes I think that instead of trying yet again, I should revise my goal, make it easier.
So when my eyes shot open (the alarm volume is set to fear-raising) and I remembered that it was sprint day, my stomach was not pleased. It turned back over on its own. Geez, I thought, it’s so early and I’m so tired and it’s going to be so hard. Do I really even want to try?
But when I flicked on my lamp I remembered Edison and his 10,000 attempts. Not failures, he said, only 10,000 ways that didn’t work. I rolled myself and my stomach out of bed.
Edison was a pretty smart man and maybe one of the hardest working men in history. As I climbed on the treadmill that morning, I thought about something else he said: “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
And so I ran.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 6 so far )Why Run?
It’s January, the first month of the year, the month when we post our resolutions smack dab on the front of the refrigerator, clear and bold and brazen for everyone to see. We resolve to eat right, exercise more, get our finances in order, spend more time with the people we love. We resolve to be kinder, gentler, more patient. And for some of us, the very first goal is one we really don’t need to post on our list because we’d do it anyway.
We resolve to run.
In 1990, there were approximately 4.8 million runners in the US; by 2010, there were almost 13 million. In just one short decade the number of runners nearly tripled. And that number accounts only for road race finishers, or those people who finished a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon. It does not include your Average Joe or Joan who runs the neighborhood streets before dawn.
Running as a sport has exploded. Why do we run? According to Running USA’s latest survey (July 2011), most people run to stay in shape, stay healthy, have fun, and relieve stress. Additionally, many people take up running as a means of taking on a new challenge and achieving a new goal. Sometimes the goal is health-related, often it is not.
Although most people surveyed claim that the motivating factor to continue running is to stay in shape, just over 40% claim that they are not happy with the shape they are currently in. So they keep running, determined to attain the level of health they desire.
Running, however, does much more than get our bodies in shape. It gets our souls in shape as well. What I mean by soul is simply this: the soul is the essence of our being. It is who we are. There is something about running that allows us to tap into our essential humanity. We find our center, our core, that thing inside that makes us unique and connects us to the other souls out there too.
When we run we get to find out what we are made of. Can we make it up that hill? Can we reach the end of the road? Can we even begin? Often, what we are made of surprises us. We find that we have more power than we thought. We are strong, responsible, intentional. And the more we run, the farther we go, we also find that running opens us up. What we often find through this openness is optimism, gratitude, joy.
For most of us, running is not an end in itself. It is the means. It is the tool that helps to shape us. Like a carpenter’s adze, running makes intricate carvings in our character, refining us with each mile or minute we run. Even though it’s January, the first month of the year, we can resolve to run—but running itself can make us resolved.
Why do you run?
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )Next Entries »
More Than Running... 