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Running is a ritual that separates your day and mentally prepares you for the activity with repetitive gestures.
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Associate running with personal pleasures, such as listening to music or enjoying seasonal scents, to overcome laziness.
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Remember your original motivations and make commitments, both to yourself and others, to maintain consistency in commitment.
Ifyou are reading there is a good chance that you have already been running for a few months/years. So let’s skip the part about “I run because blah blah.” Sometimes that motivation-the one that makes you brilliantly and definitively answer the insidious question of the one who wants to make you out to be crazy because you simply do it-is no longer enough. You don’t know why but you no longer feel like putting on your shoes and going out for a run. It happens to everyone at some point. Some come out earlier, some later. Those who give up, those who try again. And you don’t give up, right?
1. The rite
Running is a repetitive, almost autistic physical activity: same gesture for minutes, half hours, hours. It repeats itself the same, always. It looks a lot like a prayer and, like a prayer, it is a window of time in your day. There is a before and an after run, and the time of the run is a different time. As such make it preceded by a ritual that is always the same: preparing clothing, choosing shoes, stretching. It is a secular prayer, but it puts you in a different frame of mind: now you run, before you did something else, later you will do something else again.
2. The comfort zone
You’ve already read a thousand motivational phrases about getting out of your comfort zone, pushing your limits, etc. All good and very true, but now your limit is the couch. You don’t go from the couch to a 100k without something in between. So my advice is to mentally tie the act of running-which however you put it is always tiring-to something you enjoy doing that you can only do by running: listen to music, listen to podcasts or an audiobook, smell the scent of spring or wet asphalt, glide over a puddle like you did as a child. And you really enjoy doing them. So what? Are you still sitting on the sofa?
3. Remember why you do it
Your inner motivations may be strong or weak, grandiose or more modest. You can do it to lose weight or because you want to win Badwater. No matter. It is your motivation and you must never get it out of your head. When you are about to give up, remember why you are doing it. And it continues to do so.
4. Make a commitment to someone
Don’t do it alone but involve a friend or friend. Feeling accountable to him because you have made a commitment is the best way not to disfigure and to force yourself to do so. You’ll run with a friend, you’ll talk to him or her, you won’t do your personal best (ecchissenefrega) but the time will go by faster and you’ll have had a laugh with someone you’re comfortable with (don’t pick ball-breaking or ball-busting buddies who have to go like military fighters, you don’t need to specify that, do you?).
5. Choose a race to do
This is also a commitment you make, but to yourself. You make a promise to yourself: that you will prepare for a certain competition. You chose it months in advance and were reckless enough to post the membership photo on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or on Runlovers Club(you’ve already joined right?). Now everyone knows you’re going to run that race. You have to get ready, yeah.
6. Always remember how good you look afterwards
Think about it: demotivation is a feeling you have before you run. After that, however, you’re always bloody well. Don’t think about the effort required for you to be well, but just think about how well you are. You are replacing a negative thought with a positive one. I don’t feel like it now vs. I’ll be fine later. Easy, huh? Now you have a problem though: you no longer have an excuse not to go out for a run. Stop playing the victim: your shoes want to take a ride. You don’t want to be rude to them, do you? (photo credits David Goehring)