3 WAYS TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF TO KEEP RUNNING

December 7th, 2009 • Running

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These days it’s so easy to loose yourself thinking about something. Did you know that eating food that you enjoy and have eaten before brings back those happy memories of that food? How about that sneaky chip muffin when you skipped your school lunch break to avoid school dinners?

Running is a great way to loose weight and amongst other things. We will leave the benefits of running within a different post for a different time. We want to focus on why people jump on a treadmill so eager to start running in a pool of their own sweat – only to stop and give up trying again for a long time. I think the commercials are to blame here, people think it is easy to start running a 45 minute treadmill session on level 9 and a gradient of 5% – well, it’s not. And here are some ways to make it easy for you and to motivate you to continue to run.

1. Play music – listen to sermons, talks life speeches.. keep your mind busy other than thinking about your running (this can apply to all exercise)
2. Keep picturing your prize, your new look – whatever your prize is – what your reasons are and make it a must..
3. Focus on success – think positive, surely you have done mistakes, surely you have had difficult times in the past..

Focus on winning, focus on success.

Thinking about how you made it through all the other difficult times is a fantastic way to convince yourself that you can get through this. There have been people who have mentioned about thinking positive – but they always fail to mention what to think about – some people need that. If you are having a bad time with your Miss/Mrs or are going through a rough patch at work – whatever – knowing that you have emerged out from other times better and stronger will resolve you to keep digging and keep the miles ticking over.

If your not planning for success, your planning for failure. Seriously, do we think that deep? Just repeat that slowly in your mind a few times and think what you define as success. If you are not planning (and working) for this that what are you doing?

Picture your prize

1. Why are you training?
2. What inspires you?
3. What does success me to you and how do you think you can get it?

All the reasons you have about why your training – put them in front of you. Literally try this: With your hands (we have to write pretend here in case someone does this and hurts themselves) take your thoughts all out of your head, just grab them out and them throw them on a table in front of you (imagine the table too), do this when you’re at the gym about to turn the treadmill on, tell the on lookers to go to Arm-Bar.co.uk J – now you can picture them much better. Focus on some of the goals in front of you and your reasons – maybe you want to feel confident and ultimate try to improve your career – focus on that for the first 5 mins and go on to something else.

You may be doing it for a charity – again, going over your motivations get you through the tougher moments.

One word. iTunes

All actions are judged by their intentions. It would be easy for Arm-Bar to give you affiliate link to iTunes. But were nice like that.

We all know that listening to music can take your mind off the training. In fact, I have many play lists on my MP3 player (iPod 5th Generation with video), lasting anywhere between two to six hours. They mostly correspond to my mood, my training routine for the day, things that motivate me, famous talks about inspirational leaders – my list is complex like that and I like it when I train, that I have the comfort of knowing that I can listen to a 45 minute speech – here’s the gold you have been waiting for – listening to a 45 minute talk whilst going on level 6 (medium paced jog) on a 5% incline brought out 400 calories – and brought out a big smile on my face.

Nike+iPod running gear is something that I am considering. There is a power song – it only plays from what I know when you are hitting your reset goals – so if your running well you can get Rocky Eye of the Tiger to come on – anything that keeps you motivated in different ways and keeps your mind away from the training will be a great start.

Lastly. Steadfastness is the foundations to keeping successful. If your not steadfast in anything then your not going to be a good at anything (continuous), and be patient too.

Tags: Cardiovascular, Endurance, Goals, Jogging, Life skills, Reps, Run, Running, Treadmill tips

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