The Art Of Adaptation

I hate running.

This is one statement I never understood.  I have always instinctively loved running.  I was never really sure why until tonight while on a run.

I was jogging down Montreal Rd. in Ottawa when I realized what I was thinking,

I can’t wait to stop.  How long have I been running?  How much further?  I can’t wait to stop.

At this moment I had a realization.  In order to enjoy this activity I had to focus on changing limiting beliefs, focus on being in the moment and not the result or the physical discomfort I feel during a run.  This was half the realization.

The other half of the realization was understanding the real benefit of running.  I compete in Taekwon-Do.  I compete on a high level, which causes a lot of mental stress.  I actually have a lot of anxiety about even training.  I get nervous about how I will look, if I am performing at the level I should be.  If I am putting in enough effort and more.

These thoughts happen minute by minute, second to second often continuously repeating… just like when I was running.  The problem with having them about and during Taekwon-Do training is that most activities within a class or training session happen is bursts of time and short intervals.  This allows for a mental check.  On the break I can take a breath, relieved that I completed one exercise before becoming anxious once more about the next.

There is no real opportunity during a Taekwon-Do training to isolate my limiting thoughts and focus on turning them off, around or down.  I need to put 100 per cent of my focus into the exercise.

I suppose I could but it would take many, many classes to do the same amount of mental reworking I could complete in one run.  Running long distance is the perfect opportunity to push my body to that point where those limiting thoughts emerge and then maintain that pace while I (this may sound strange) separate from my physical body and completely exist inside my mind or conscious.

If you don’t like running I think it’s a perfect opportunity to give it a try.  Everybody has the potential to run and enjoy it from a physical perspective,  it’s the mind that gets in the way.

The Art Of Adaptation:  Every limiting thought is also an opportunity.