I spent my Sunday training for the DiazVista race in Vancouver, Canada two weeks from now! As part of my training, I planned on taking a long run four-hour run.
I decided to run over the George Washington Bridge and make my way through Fort Lee Historic Park, hitting the trails. A bit of greenery near our concrete jungle of Manhattan.
What I didn’t anticipate was going a bit too far into the park, and making my way out and back over the bridge close to dinner time. I knew I had a long slog from 178th street back home to Battery Park (all the way at the bottom of Manhattan near the freedom tower). I knew I was staring down a 1.45 hour run home after putting in over 3 hours.
The last half-hour was brutal. I must admit, I thought about calling an UBER but I thought better to challenge myself to a bit of a mind game to get to my goal.
And it worked!
I decided to run for an entire song. Then, when the song ended, I rewarded myself with a silent walk and 20 deep breaths.
Song. Silence. Breathe. Song. Silence. Breathe.
This mantra pushed my tired and weary bones back home!
So what’s the takeaway? Sometimes, you need to chunk it out and gamify, to get through the hardest part of the goal.
Challenge yourself today, when you’re at your major “case of the Mondays” low point, find a way to break it down into segments and reward yourself along the way.
Perhaps it’s 30-min spent working on your daily to-do list, followed by an accomplishment of a personal task. Or maybe it’s doing 45-min. of work, followed by a brisk walk around the block to get the blood flowing. 1 hour of work for 15-minutes of a coffee break.
Build your reward sheet at the beginning of the day so you have something to look forward to.
…and have an amazing week.
Colin
The kick in the pants you need. Sign-up for a better start to your work day.