Being a beginning runner can be hard for so many reasons – some more actual problems than others. Much of what we battle as newbies is our mind. This crazy trickster will be your biggest adversary in the entire journey.
Your mind will tell you that people are staring at you – they aren’t. If they are, they are unworthy of any attention or time you spend worrying about what they think.
Your mind will tell you that you are too slow and clumsy to run. Oh, contraire. There is no such thing as too slow and much of being clumsy is also in your head – so this is a double whammy.
Your mind may also tell you that there is no way you can run X amount of minutes or X miles. Your mind is full of it. You CAN (barring an injury or illness) run any distance you train for and for any amount of time.
Your mind will also simply plant that evil little seed of “I can’t.” This one may be the worst one and toughest to ignore. It plays on all your insecurities and doubts with those two little words.
The truth is, you can.
Repeat after me, “You absolutely CAN do this.”
Turn that dialogue around. You wouldn’t let someone else tell you these things, would you? Tell your brain if it can’t be nice and encouraging, then it needs to shut it.
Take the power back from those misgivings. Refuse to let them rule you and prevent you from moving forward.
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