Put on your running clothes

Runner

I did it again.

Honestly, I had every intention of running this morning. I drank a lot of water yesterday (its hot in Atlanta, even at 6am.) I set the alarm, checked the weather, and made sure my calendar didn’t have any early morning meetings. Everything was lined up.

I even woke up a few minutes before my alarm. I went downstairs and had a glass of water. Bang, let’s do this!

And then… I spent the next 15 minutes justifying why I could just run tomorrow morning, its no big deal, besides I have a lot of work to do and getting ahead of it this morning would be the best decision.

Yeah, right.

Like you, I’m a master at convincing myself that the lazy way is the right answer. I dominate myself in early morning negotiations like nobody’s business.

What I failed to do in this case was, immediately upon getting up, I should have put on my running clothes. Because there’s nothing more pathetic than getting up early, putting on running clothes, lacing up your running shoes (Mizuno of course) and then sitting on the couch and not running. Even I can’t out-negotiate myself into that one.

The point: Sometimes you just have to put on your running clothes.

I need to remember this, particularly when I want to do something that isn’t “mission critical”. Like writing my book. I go through periods where I make great progress. And then I go through times, like now, where I struggle to have the will power to just sit down and write. But if I were to just open up Microsoft Word (the equivalent to putting on my running clothes,) I’m sure I’d start writing.

Perhaps, like me, this trick of putting on your running clothes will help you overcome those important tasks that you need to do, but don’t have to do.

And here’s to hoping that I’m not such a great negotiator that I can talk myself into the many benefits of doing work while wearing my running clothes ;)

7 Comments

  1. Amy on August 2, 2016 at 10:05 am

    I read somewhere that if you sleep in your running/workout clothes, then you really have NO reason to not get up and get moving. Unless you don’t sleep at all the night before and you’re joined in bed 1.5 hours before you planned to get up by a toddler who refuses to give you any space in the bed… Then you just have to force yourself to workout while dinner is in the oven, relying on your spouse to make sure the house doesn’t burn down. ;)



  2. Jeff Hilimire on August 2, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    LOL, I know your spouse, maybe wait until the next morning ;)



  3. Amy on August 2, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    The broccoli only slightly burned…the rest of dinner survived. ;)



  4. Joe Koufman on August 2, 2016 at 10:20 pm

    Was the point of this blog post that you are now using Microsoft Word? That is what I took away from it…



  5. Jeff Hilimire on August 3, 2016 at 5:36 am

    LOL, yep, for writing the book a Dropbox + Word combo was the best one. The Word app on the iPad is pretty solid.



  6. Julius Johnson on August 4, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    I’m curious to know if the advice you offered in this post was successful. I.e just put on your running gear and GO! I think it’s the human condition to make excuses and I would like to know how you beat it.



  7. Jeff Hilimire on August 5, 2016 at 4:48 am

    Its worked well for me. In fact, I’m writing this comment while in my running clothes at 5:45am, knowing that I need to stop “working” and get out there in a few minutes! I’ve also tried things like restricting fun activities until I do certain tasks. When I used to run on a treadmill, I would only let myself watch a particular Netflix show if I was actually on the treadmill. I think little life hacks like that can make a big difference.



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