Need to Get in a Workout, But Not Feeling Motivated? Try This…
On Sunday, I had a 7 mile run planned. I wanted to get it done early so that I had the rest of the day to play. I woke up at 5:30am and went about my morning routine—coffee, reading, and sketching—to get me ready to head out the door by 7am for a morning workout.
But, the coffee wasn’t working, the reading wasn’t grabbing my attention, and I couldn’t figure out anything to sketch.
By 7am, I was no closer to starting my 7 mile run than I was when I crawled out of bed at 5:30am.
7 became 8.
8 became 10.
10 became 1.
Progress made: none.
At some point in our journey to achieve athletic, fitness, and wellness goals, we simply just have to take action.
No amount of thinking will ever get you as close to your goals as a tiny bit of action will.
WHEN IN DOUBT, TAKE ACTION
So, I had to take action.
By 1pm, in the midst of the Florida heat, there was no way that I was going to be able to do a 7 mile run outside. I had blown that opportunity by 9am.
An outside run: where time flies by, and the miles just fade away.
No, by 1pm, I was relegated to the treadmill at our community gym.
A treadmill: a place where miles and time, for me, often creep by.
In the scorching heat, I walked to the gym dreading the feat in front of me. Door to door, it’s a half mile walk to the gym, and by the time I got there I was already sweating and uncomfortable simply because of the outside temperature and dew point. I opened the gate to the pool and saw a few families relaxing and splashing in the pool. It looked fun. They seemed to have figured out how to have a relaxing Sunday while I had to just walk past with my goals driving me to seek discomfort to make progress. Jealous, I walked into the gym, set my keys down on the ledge by the treadmill, and sat on the edge of the treadmill to tie my shoes. Despite being on the machine where the work was about to happen, by 1:07pm, I was no closer to feeling ready to get started on this 7 mile run than I was when my feet hit the ground at 5:30am.
And sometimes, that’s how workouts—the steps and actions that we must take to get closer to our goals—go. Even for someone who loves stretching comfort zones through physical exertion, workouts can be really hard and can take a ton of effort to get over inertia.
I think that’s where the misconception often comes in. People who want to get in shape—who have struggled with getting in shape their entire lives—see those who always seem to be in shape and think that it’s easy. It’s never easy. Ever. Sure, sometimes the work comes easier than other times, but it’s always work. It always hurts. It always requires at least some level of discomfort. And today, this 7 mile run, required a lot of discomfort both physically and mentally.
TRY THIS…
But sometimes, there are tricks that we can do.
Tricks to override the exhaustion that we feel throughout our body, and within the story that we are telling ourselves about the work that lies in front of us. Sometimes we can try things—do things that seem counterintuitive—that make the work just happen no matter how much we want to avoid the work in front of us, quit during a workout, or back off as things get hard during a workout and go a bit easier.
And, perhaps, this is what has made working out seem like it comes easy to me.
Mastery
The more we engage in a particular activity, the more we learn ways to control ourselves within that activity to find more and more success.
There are lots of tricks and this one was particularly effective on Sunday.
I stole it—well, I adapted it—from Ryan Holiday, author of numerous best sellers including Ego Is The Enemy, and the founder of Daily Stoic. During a 21-day Stoic Challenge that Julie and I did to kick off 2020, Ryan had us “find a place of isolation, [and] then count to 1,000.” The goal was to attain stillness and control over our minds, which often run rampant and control us.
Case in point: my mind had been running since 5:30am telling me every reason possible why I wasn’t ready for a 7 mile run.
As Marcus Aurelius says, “Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about.”
I started the run at 8-minute pace—a pace that I know I can comfortably do—to simply get started. At the 8-minute mark, I still wasn't feeling great, but I had made some progress.
One mile down. Six miles to go.
And that got me thinking—overthinking. I started calculating the work that I still had in front of me. This was going to be a grind. I was afraid of the amount of time that my body was going to be required to continue to feel like this. 8 minute miles. 6 miles to go. 48 minutes to go. That’s a long time to be in discomfort.
And then I started counting…
“One…two…three…”
Ryan Holiday told us to “count one digit per second…and don’t rush through. Don’t mentally celebrate when you get through a set of 100, or when you’re halfway through. Just keep going. Stay present. Stay on task. You’ll have to concentrate your mind on your count. Concentrate on setting an even pace. Don’t make up songs to go along with your count, don’t whistle, don’t be antsy—seek out stillness in your mind, the stillness that you’re adding to and building up with each new second of counting.”
I said them all—all the digits—and got to…
“…two hundred forty-eight…two hundred forty-nine…two hundred fifty…”
I hit the pace button—twice. I was feeling fluid.
The two hundred fifty count had weirdly passed by in a flash even though by the time I got to “twenty-five” I was already thinking, “this is going to take forever.”
I kept going. I found a tree outside to just focus on. I focused on it and just counted…
“…four hundred ninety nine…five hundred…”
I listened to what Ryan had told me so many months ago and I didn’t celebrate the halfway mark. I just kept staring at the tree and counting. But, I did hit the pace button again. I was finding a groove. I had no clue how much time had passed. I had no clue the distance I had covered.
All I cared about was stilling my mind to let my body do the work that it knew how to do.
“…six hundred one…six hundred two…six hundred three…”
Our bodies can do a lot more than we think they can. Our minds often shut down our bodies—or never let them start—well before our bodies are actually ready to shut down. On Sunday, my mind was telling me all sorts of things, and because of this, I had repeatedly negotiated with myself and put off a 7 mile run that could have been done by as early as 8:30am.
As I ran on the treadmill, I realized that even though it didn’t feel like it, my body was ready to run that day. My mind, however, was not.
Turn off our minds and our body can do amazing things.
Counting—a trick to turn off our minds and find stillness—allows the work to happen.
“…seven hundred fifty…”
I hit the pace button again. I felt like I was cruising.
I was starting to get excited because the work was getting done.
And I came back to Ryan’s advice to just to just keep going and simply be in the moment allowing the seconds—the counting—to pass. And, in doing so, my body just did what it has done so many times: run.
“…nine hundred ninety-nine…one thousand.”
I had a huge smile on my face and I was eager to see how much time and distance had passed.
When I looked at the treadmill display, I saw 4.72 miles. Just over two miles to go.
I started thinking.
I started overthinking.
I started calculating.
And, I had lost the zone that I was in. I was attending to how I was feeling as I contemplated the two miles that I still had to go. I started assessing my ability as I calculated the time that it was going to take and the effort that it was going to require. My mind, like it had done all day, started talking me out of what needed to be done. I was being “jerked about” by my mind.
So, I got back to counting…
“One…two…three…”
“…two hundred fifty…”
While still focusing on that same tree, I hit the pace button again. I wanted to get to five hundred this time around. I was starting to feel it, but I just kept counting…
“…four hundred ninety-nine…five hundred.”
I looked at the treadmill display—6.72 miles—and smiled as I hit the pace button. I knew I could do it. I was going to finish what I set out to do.
6.8 miles: I hit the pace button again and pumped my fist.
6.9 miles: I hit the button again and felt light as a feather.
6.95 miles: I hit it again—6:53/mile pace—and finished off the run.
7 miles complete. 53:29. 7:38/mile pace.
SHUT OFF YOUR MIND—COUNT—GET THE WORK DONE
I’ve been at this too long and know what would have happened had I not gotten my mind right. I wasn't feeling good when I started my run and that was what I was attending to. As a result, I would have negotiated with myself and stopped early. Cutting my set goal short, I would have walked out of the gym disappointed. My mind has an amazing ability to talk myself out of things that I know my body can do.
Too often we wait for the perfect moment—to feel great—to start making progress toward our goals. This isn’t how we make progress. We need to do the work—get in the reps—especially when we don’t want to. This is where real progress happens.
Counting to 1000
A little trick.
In the moment, the digits seem to slowly go by.
At the end, you’ll look back and wonder where it all went.
It works, but you just have to try it to find out how it works for you.
Ryan Holiday ends with a quote from Siddhartha: “Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself, just as I can. Few people have that capacity and yet everyone could have it.”
You have that capacity…
…be yourself…
…allow your body to do what it knows how to do…
…get out of your own way by simply shutting off your mind…
…just start counting…