For everything we want to achieve in life, I think the most important factor to its successful achievement depends on our ability to control how we think and keep ourself motivated.
When I first started out running, I was so unfit I could hardly run for 1 minute. I gasped for breath and my face would turn completely red. My stomach and chest would feel a pain and a little voice inside my head would start telling me to stop running and just walk!
The little voice would get louder and LOUDER the longer I ran. It would tell me all sorts of things, such as “You’ve done enough running, you’ve done a great job, just stop and walk.”
Sometimes it would say “Your chest hurts and your stomach is having stitches, something must be wrong.. therefore STOP!”
On other occasions it would tell me the time and say “You are running late today, cut your workout short. You have a long day ahead, save your energy.”
At times, it would tell me, “I hate this running, I hate being on the treadmill, what the hell are you doing to yourself? Why must you force yourself to do such a thing?”
My mind had all sorts of reasons to tell me why I should not be running and exercising. The reasons all sounded good and they were all really tempting to me. At times I succumbed to them and did cut my workout short, only to learn that I was just giving myself excuses to stop.
I had failed myself.
The little voices were little demons which wanted me to remain big and unhealthy.
So I had to start pushing them out of my mind with reinforcing phrases instead. While I was running, I would have to keep telling myself, “Come on, its only 1 more minute. You can do it. Get it over with and you will have accomplished your goal. Don’t succumb.”
Sometimes I would go “Ah, you little demons, you aren’t going to stop me from reaching my goal….I’m going to keep running!”
Even now, 9 months after I first started running, I still have little demons telling me to stop. This morning it kept telling me that I was already fit and that I didn’t need to exercise or run anymore. I had to tell it “NO, if you stop exercising you will revert back to being that BIG girl. Is that what you want??”
For me, I realized that one of the most important key to being healthy is in the mind. If you can control your mind, motivate yourself, then you will succeed. You just have to win over those demons which don’t like change and exercise and tell them who is boss 😀
Use motivating phrases! YOU ARE IN CONTROL!
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