"Running" your life

Most of my writing ideas come to me in the quiet early morning hours before I go to work. Sometimes they are gleaned from conversations with others. Then there are the seemingly unlikeliest of times one might expect to get writing material: while running. Yesterday morning was one such occurence.

As I neared the end of my run by the lake's harbor, I thought about running as a metaphor for my motivation on any given point in time. When I feel motivated, I run. When I run, I feel motivated. It's bit of a chicken before the egg syndrome. Which comes first? Sure, it's been proven exercise gives us more energy, endorphins ('feel good' chemicals in the brain),etc But don't we have to get the motivation to run first? For me, mainly yes. Yesterday it occurred to me that how motivated I am in other areas of my life can be gauged by my running habits (minus any weather issues!). One week or two I can easily run three times per week. Then another week I may be lucky if I run even once!

It's not just the frequency that reflects my inner motivations; it's also the intensity and endurance I put forth. For instance, yesterday when I felt an urge to stop running to walk for a minute or so, I pushed my endurance by thinking "Ok, just run five more feet to the lightpost ahead." I reached the marker and then it became "Run ten more feet to the park bench." Before I knew it, I had gone 30-40 more feet without stopping to walk at all! Other days I can barely make it to the first "marker" I set for myself.

On highly motivated days, I feel highly accomplished. On low motivation days, I don't feel quite so good about myself. This can be translated as a parallel to what's going on in my life. If I feel this way at work (today for instance being a low motivation/anxious day), with relationships and/or other goals I aim for, this is more or less how I'll feel when my feet touch the open road to run (or not).

Last year while having coffee with a friend of mine, we had an interesting conversation that still sticks in my mind. He believes there are three kinds of people in life: walkers, runners, and jumpers. This is, of course, a metaphor for how people tend to live their lives. He explained runners are those who go after what they want, whereas walkers are slow at setting and accomplishing things. Jumpers are the extreme example of ambition. "They are the ones who have everything going for them. They graduate two years early from school, that sort of thing." My friend categorized himself a "walker" and I the "runner."

What if we don't fall in one particular category though? As I mentioned, there are days I feel like 'walking' through my life and there are days I want to 'run, run, run.' Sometimes I even like to 'dream' or be off in a daze without doing one thing. And I think that's ok.