The 365 Commitment

Day 80 of 84 – Establishing Minimums

Here is something to consider. Creating new minimums. I am almost done with my 84 day sprint. As I have been pushing myself extra hard during this sprint, I have noticed something that has really helped me. Before I started the sprint, I had in my mind a bare minimum run length of 2 miles per day. No matter what, I would run at least 2 miles a day (except on my one rest day per week). Now, as I have been pushing myself harder I have established a new minimum. I am at 10K per day or 6.21 miles per day. I probably will not be able to maintain that for very much longer, but here is the point.

Establishing a new minimum is a bit revolutionary in your mental conviction. If you set the minimum and stick to it for a while, then you will put forth the effort to just get too that level. So you want to improve, raise the minimum. I was a little tired today as I was coming close to mile 5 today. Tired, but not so tired that I could not finish my minimum.

As I rounded the corner, I ran right into a skunk. Yup. Mr. Pepe standing right there in the street, tail up, fangs out and freaked out that I just kicked him accidentally. It took about 10 microseconds for the visual image to register with my brain, then another 10 microseconds for that to trigger a response. Suddenly, I had an explosion of energy and adrenaline. My legs actually twitched, and I went from running about 8min per mile to about 5min per mile. No more exhaustion, I suddenly found that I had a lot of energy in reserve.

So in reality, when you are pushing yourself, you are only getting to about 30 – 40% of your capability and capacity. Your body and mind hold a lot in reserve. So the only really way to trick or fool yourself into higher performance is to raise your minimum as you adjust. I am not talking just about running. I am talking about just about everything you engage with in your life. Think of anything that you are working on right now that you think is “hard.” You are probably only putting in 40% of your effort at the most. You have 60% more you could throw in if you really, really had to.

So you have to force yourself to give more and probably do so gradually. The best way that I have discovered to do that is to raise your minimum amount of effort you will commit to a given effort.

Guy Reams (599)

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