Why I run

I just finished running the longest run I have ever run in my 29 years of life.

Like I just did, maybe 15 minutes ago. As good a time as ever to communicate what’s in my foggy foggy brain.

How do you accomplish things?

I’ll tell you.

You set a goal for yourself.

And then you have to try. You have to start. That’s step one.

You’ll have an idea (I bet at some point you already have) and you’ll think, I want to do that. I want to accomplish this thing.

Your first battle is the first bout of anxiety that says, “You can’t do that. Think about how hard that will be. You’ve never done something like that before. What makes you think you can now? Best not to try.”

Your first mission is to fight that sensation in your brain. You’ve got to think and evaluate and be honest and say, “You know what, maybe you’re right, but I am going to give it a shot anyway.”

And then you start.

And you’ll feel absolutely overjoyed, blissful, nirvana.

You’ll think, “Hell yeah I can do this, I’m absolutely crushing it!!”

And you’ll keep going and then anxiety will come back and say, “Dude look around you, you’re in way over your head.”

Then you have to think, “Okay, this voice was wrong once, it said I couldn’t do this, and I am. So, maybe it’s wrong again.”

And then you keep going and realize, “yep, I can, in fact, do this!!”

And that cycle continues.

Every time it happens, it gets a little bit easier to say, “hey, get lost you turd, I’m in the middle of something.”

I run only for my brain. I don’t care what it does to my body.

Improve my cardiovascular function? Bravo, huzzah, hot dog! Not why I’m here though.

I’m here for my brain because every time you run, especially when you go long, when you seek to endure, you present your brain with that exact scenario and you have 100% of the power in your hands to say, “eat my butt,” and keep going.

And it gets easier.

And then it gets easier outside of just running.

You start realizing you can do just about anything if you can put anxiety in its place.

Because, quite frankly, its evolutionary mechanism is safety. It keeps us within the status quo.

Is what you want in your life currently within your status quo?

No? You’re going to have to put in some work to get what you want.

Work. Effort. That’s what life takes. It takes effort.

You can do anything. Anxiety is full of falsehoods. It doesn’t have the complete data set. It’s only acting on what has happened before. But new things happen all the time that have never happened before. Who says they aren’t supposed to happen for you, too?

You can do anything. Challenge your anxiety. It gets weaker and weaker.

But whatever it is that you want, you will have to put in effort, be patient, think, brave the unexpected, respond to the challenges, and adapt, adapt, and adapt. You’ll have to persevere.

Do you know how to do that?

No? Life beat you down for a while and you forget how to dream, huh?

Been there.

Go run. You’ll learn how to accomplish everything that you dream about.

And you’ll keep dreaming bigger.