By: Kelly Dearmore <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Run even when you don\u2019t want to: Let those first steps motivate you, not hinder you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve read it before, and I\u2019ve heard it said, that the\nhardest step to take when you\u2019re not feeling especially motivated is simply\nlacing \u2018em up that first time. That\u2019s just not true, not for me at least. I see\nwhat those who say that mean, but I\u2019m betting a bowl of cookie dough and a\nfully charged tablet with Netflix, that what such well-meaning motivators are\nreally aiming to get across is a key point just beyond slipping on your running\nshoes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the times I\u2019ve found myself either feeling far less than\nmotivated, or perhaps after a hectic week or two when I\u2019ve not run so much, the\ntoughest step to take is actually, well, the literal first steps. Perhaps\nyou\u2019re like me and can relate. Claiming some sort of victory over a mental or\nemotional hurdle by putting on my running shoes (Brooks Adrenaline GTS for me)\nis weak, because I can do a heck of a lot of other things with my running shoes\non that only require a lightning quick change of mind between my front door and\nthe sidewalk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoes are great like that. They cover our feet while the\nrest of our bodies do whatever it is our wandering, unmotivated minds lead us\ninto. I\u2019ll check my email for those previously annoying but suddenly urgent\nsales ads from retailers I don\u2019t remember ever visiting before, or I\u2019ll make\nsure my garage is straightened up even though I\u2019ve neglected it for a\nyear. Most likely, I\u2019ll hop in my truck\nand point it towards a cozy seat at the nearest microbrewery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n See? It\u2019s easy to quickly reverse course and do something,\nanything, other than run with your running shoes on. But once you\u2019ve stepped\noff your own sidewalk, let alone begin to make your way out of your neighborhood,\nyou\u2019re committed. You\u2019re either running or you\u2019re a potential road hazard for\nthat neighbor who never seems to think he needs to take that turn quite as\ncarefully as you think he should. You\u2019re running because you have to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not that you get to hang a \u201cMission Accomplished\u201d\nbanner across the outside of your garage just by getting started, necessarily, but\nthe rest of your run is, figuratively at least, all downhill. You\u2019re doing it,\nso there\u2019s no reason to stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the key here. You. Are. Doing. It.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By simply taking those vital initial few steps into the\nright direction, you\u2019ve graduated from talking about it to making it happen.\nYou\u2019ve willed your thoughts into reality. I\u2019m in my early 40s now, and many\nyears ago, just before I entered my 30s, I started a sales job and was eager to\nget into the swing of things. To be more accurate, I was beginning a new\ncareer. I had never worked a strictly results-oriented job before where my pay\ndepended on what I actually accomplished. I didn\u2019t know then just how daunting\nit was to go from functioning as a big talker, rife with unsolicited ideas, to\na highly productive performer with growing paychecks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One Monday morning, early in my tenure at the company, I\nmust\u2019ve been blabbering on a bit too much about what I thought about this, and\nwhat I thought would be good for that, and just how we needed to go about\nsomething or other. In the middle of my naiveite-slathered filibustering, my\nboss, who was also the company\u2019s co-owner, and as a former running back for the\nUCLA football team in the early \u201880s, cut an imposing physical figure, shut me\nup rather succinctly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSay, man, what\u2019s next to your name on the Big Board?\u201d he\nasked rather tersely, pointing his condor wing of an arm towards the wall where\na large dry erase board displayed the totals of each sales rep in the room.\n\u201cI\u2019m being serious, tell me what\u2019s next your name on the Big Board,\u201d he urged\nas an awakening began to fiercely pierce my proverbial gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sheepishly admitted aloud what everyone in the room knew,\nsince the Big Board was the unmissable focal point of the office. I didn\u2019t have\na single stinking number next to my name. I had been there for a few weeks and\nhadn\u2019t made a sale. I was all talk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was \u201cthat guy.\u201d We all know \u201cthat guy.\u201d I had invested in\na couple of decent suits and nicer pieces of business attire before I started,\nso I looked the part of a successful salesman, and I certainly talked the talk,\nbut nothing else. I was that annoying guy who shows up to the race with $500\nworth of the latest, most colorful gear, fresh out of the Amazon package, who aggressively\nsprints past everyone during the first mile of a 5k, only to be seen a few\nminutes later cramping on the curb with barely a drop of sweat dampening his\n$50 Gore Wear Windstopper Beanie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The deserved shaming worked. I shut up. And slowly I racked\nup a few sales. There was a large Chinese gong the sales reps got to smash when\nwe landed a significant new account. It let the entire office know more\nbusiness was on its way for the company. It was beautiful because there wasn\u2019t\nany need for me to talk about it, or pump myself up to others. The gong did the\nwork, but only after I made something happen for the positive first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking the first steps on your run, especially when you\nwould rather do literally anything else, is so much more than simple jogging.\nThe first steps make the coming miles easier, more sensible. When you lose that\nfirst pound during a diet, the other pounds you may want to lose feel much more\nachievable. Once you\u2019ve finally made it past the first few pages of that copy\nof the massive Hamilton biography you\u2019ve been staring at for years, the\nsubsequent chapters will likely flow smoothly by. But only when you start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s not complicate things. Starting is doing. Doing is\naccomplishing. Let your progress be the motivation. Don\u2019t talk about it, don\u2019t\nthink about it, and don\u2019t read about it. Start doing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Kelly Dearmore Run even when you don\u2019t want to: Let those first steps motivate you, not hinder you. I\u2019ve read it before, and I\u2019ve heard it said, that the hardest step to take when you\u2019re not feeling especially motivated is simply lacing \u2018em up that first time. That\u2019s just not true, not for me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[579],"yoast_head":"\n