So I taught my kids to run this last few months. All three of them are now running the equivalent of a 5K every other day. They are amazed that they can now run 2 – 3 miles without stopping. When we first started, running 100 feet seemed like a miracle, and now they are running around the neighborhood as if they have been doing this forever. One of my gimmicks has been to name certain locations around the 2 mile course I created. The mile marker, has been affectionately named, “Penny Wise.” The reason is that there is water culvert drain right at this point where Penny Wise looks like he might have actually visited once. As you might recall from Stephen King’s book called, IT, Penny Wise is a manifestation or embodiment of our deepest fears. So, naturally, the fear of running a mile needs to be overcome and in effect we get to slay PennyWise.
Now what is really interesting is this. Once each of my kids hit the 1 mile barrier and were finally able to stare PennyWise down, the broke the 2 mile barrier in only a few short days. You see it was not a physical limitation, but rather a mental one.
In each of our brains lies a dormant, primal part of ourselves that is wired to deal with threats to our survival. This is a highly acute machine that can detect any slight movement, or anything out of the ordinary. We can detect any possible threat to our person and react with a very rapid adrenal system. We are effectively wired to react to and respond to threats quickly.
However, here is the problem we modern urbanites face. We still have this system, but rarely, if ever, do we find ourselves facing down a threat to our lives, such as a Saber Tooth Cat, or a Crazy Lunatic Clown. Consequently, we deal with any threat to ourselves with significant overreaction. A client tells us that they do not like our proposal and we freak out, and go on melt down. We think someone is going to take our parking spot and we go into super ultra attack mode. We are wired to react to anything that threatens us in any way.
Here is the deal. Almost everything you face, in day to day life in modern society is NOT going to harm you in any really significant way. So the feelings that you have about rejection, failure, competition or anything like that are almost ALWAYS a over reaction. So basically, you need to tell IT to shut up, so you can respond to daily events with rationality!
Guy Reams
