Once a hopeful Comrades runner approached a coach at his home to talk about the chances of finishing the epic. While there, he picked up a delicate trophy made of crystal. The trophy slipped out of his hands and shattered into many pieces. The runner, shaken by his carelessness, expressed deep regret for his action. The coach, always quick with his Zen wisdom, reassured the athlete that the treasure is not the trophy, but the experience he had in the process of winning it. It was the joy, pleasure, and fulfilment of striving each day.
An aspirant Comrades runner, Parmanand Nana has yet to win a medal. Certainly his goal was a desired finish and a prized medal, but he failed on every attempt. After twelve unsuccessful attempts, a friend asked why he persisted in what seemed to be a futile journey into the forest of frustration. Parmanand quickly responded that the attainment of the goal was not his ultimate objective. The goal was his excuse to experience a full life of training at high levels, getting into great shape, eating healthy foods, and feeling terrific. The goal simply became the beacon that illuminated his journey toward fitness and wellness.
It’s not that attaining a goal has no value. We need goals as beacons to give us something to strive for. We need both beacons that are nearby – call them short-term goals, as well as beacons that are farther away – long-term goals.
However, the process of arriving at that beacon, passing it, and looking for the next one is what causes our inner selves to flourish and grow. It’s exciting to achieve your goals, but to do so for the sake of achievement alone may exclude you from experiencing the joy in the moment, separating you from the deeper essence of running.
Like Parmanand, once you make this shift in consciousness, you open yourself to endless opportunities to nurture your spirit and discover the real reasons you run. You also cease to measure your self-worth according to external outcomes and results, and thus nurture your self-esteem. Motivation is the direct result of love for what you are doing, whether you love the recognition; the accomplishment; or simply the motion, the flow, the effort.
What Motivates You?
For most the initial phases of breaking into the running lifestyle are filled with frustration, disillusionment. aches. and pains. But truthfully, if you have a strong enough why, you can bear almost any how.
The credit for this idea goes to several, but generally it is attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher. It suggests that people who have a strong sense of purpose or a reason for running can endure almost any challenge or hardship they encounter in training. The word “why” in the quote refers to a runners’ s motivation or reason for being on the road.
From experiencing the enjoyment of much improved health and fitness to the joy of a greater mental state of wellbeing. From achieving something difficult and thus gaining the admiration of your peers to growing and nurturing your own self-esteem and confidence the why’s are as plentiful as the human condition itself. Carefully seek first your why and the how will follow later.
In this lies an opportunity to focus on the issues at hand and gain perspective. Whatever your reason, running must give you the chance for powerful, energetic. in-your-comfort-zone conditioning.
The whole process should be gentle and forgiving. Sustained motivation is more an act of love than it is a discipline. By taking a moderate approach you increase the likelihood of experiencing many of the wonderful benefits of a training program -weight loss, a more relaxed daily existence and increased amounts of endorphins – the body’s own opiates that result in the feeling of a “runner’s high” released in your brain. These added benefits easily motivate you to continue.
Where Are We Going?
Now that you are focused on exploring the joy of the process of attaining your goals, it’s a good place to examine the specific goals you set out for yourself. Are they close enough that you can see their glow? Or are they too far away to even be seen?
Perhaps they are lined up like stepping stones, one leading to the other. The following guidelines will help you formulate goals that challenge your body. mind. and spirit.
Evaluate Your Abilities
It is crucial to be honest in evaluating your abilities. You want to establish realistic goals to avoid the crushing feelings of failure, frustration and disappointment. Yet you don’t want to sell yourself short in the process.
Oftentimes there is a wide gap between your real limits and what you believe to be your limits. Examine what you think are your limits and go beyond them. In assessing your limits, establish realistic but challenging short-term goals.
In this way you are likely to achieve these goals frequently and you will reinforce the psychological message that you are a winner and you can accomplish your goals. This will ignite courage, confidence, motivation. and commitment for future directions.
Be sure these goals are in concert with your lifestyle. Working 60 hours per week could interfere with running competitive times, regardless of your physical attributes. On the other hand, if you have 20 hours a week to devote to your training but lack the necessary competitive physical components, your running could become disappointing. Talk to a runner friend, spouse. or coach-someone who can help you to assess your abilities more objectively.
In reality what you can conceive, you can achieve. If you feel that something you want is possible, go for it. In time you will reach it. Of course, the evidence must indicate that it is possible. If you fail to reach goals right away, don’t despair. Patience and persistence will enable you to arrive as long as your training process is fulfilling and fun.
Incorporate Other Life Objectives
Perhaps you are a runner and an amateur photographer, and your partner loves to travel. You have two children and wish to spend quality time with them. Why not plan a family trip to a fun race and take some good photos of the points of interest?
Such combining of goals into one project can bring a sense of joy and fulfilment to all involved. Altruistically or not, the family will support your efforts all the way. The possibilities are limitless. How about the London Marathon?
Share Your Goal
Aside from family support, get someone of equal ability to share your goal. With mutual objectives, you can be an endless source of encouragement and inspiration for each other. You can spur one another on when discouragement sets in. Your workouts together become more enjoyable, particularly those that require effort, the long, lonely distance runs.
Improvement will be rapid as each of you will invariably alternate pushing each other to run harder than planned. Such an arrangement plays into your competitive nature and helps to bring out your best.
Be Patient and Persistent
With patience and persistence, your goals can be reached. At some point body, mind, and spirit eventually will come into step and take you to your goal.
The delay of gratification is sometimes difficult to contend with, but in the end you will be rewarded for your persistence. As long as you get up just one more time than you fall.
A steam engine’s effort to pull 100 cars at a water temperature of 99°C is futile. Yet one measlier degree of heat to reach the boiling point will enable that same engine to barrel up and over a mountain pass lugging a century of coal cars behind it. What if it quit after reaching the 99°C? Sometimes all you need for a major breakthrough in your performance is “just one more degree” of persistence.
Improvement through goalsetting is also a process of trial and error; such a process is time consuming and demands patience and persistence. Two steps forward and one back will still eventually get you to your destination. Being impatient, however, can actually interfere with goal attainment. To be impatient is to create stress that directly inhibits the natural fluidity of your muscles thus preventing you from performing optimally.
A goal can be just like the elusive butterfly – you can chase one for hours and come up empty-handed. But lie down in the field and be patient. and one will probably land on your nose.
Embrace Your Setbacks
Since the goal setting process is one of trial and error, remember that setbacks are to be expected; they are a natural consequence of taking a risk and trying to improve. They are temporary, however, and are opportunities to learn and re-evaluate your situation. With new data from the setback – I went out too fast; I surged too early; I over trained and ran tired. You can re-establish new goals and proceed accordingly with the updated information.
Visualize Your Goals
One of the strongest support systems you have is your mind’s eye. Clearly see yourself reaching your goal, and experience in your mind how that would feel. The clearer your imagery and picture of achievement. the easier it is to accomplish the task. As we know it, the central nervous system does not distinguish between real and imagined events; your body will follow the visualized images as if they were real.
Apply the concept of visual imagery to your goals, and you will find a strong support in your attainment of those objectives. W\hat you see is what you get.
Affirm Your Goals
Affirmations are short, concise imagery phrases that, when repeated often enough, create the clarity and confidence you need to reach your goals. A few examples follow.
Lean and trim. I run to win.
Silky. smooth. and swift, I run to get a lift.
Every day. in every way, I excel and run well.
The arrival is nice. but the journey is best.
Goals are beacons that keep me on track.
I love the journey as much as the destination.
I am a Comrades finisher.
The body is extremely suggestible and receptive to such images. Create your own self-suggestions. In a relaxed state of mind, repeat a phrase over and over. The statement should reflect your beliefs about yourself or what you want to become in the future. State it as if it were already true. Choose only those ideas that are possible for you, even if they haven’t been achieved yet.
Many ask – Is it better to announce my goals, or should I keep them secret? Truthfully, whatever makes you feel most comfortable. Some runners feel anxious and pressured once their goal is out there. Such stress can interfere with their performances.
Once announced your goals may can be subject to the scrutiny of your peers: there will be the barrage of questions when you return from the race: What was your time? Did you place?
On the other hand, goal pronouncement can be helpful. If used wisely, it can strengthen your commitment and motivation, it gives those who know your intentions a chance to rally around you and support your efforts. You must ultimately decide when it’s good to let the secret out.
The basic idea is to celebrate both the process created by setting such objectives and the natural by-product of such joy, the actual attainment of your goals.