Last Easter, I was able to run 10km in 50
minutes, which I was pretty proud of.
However, I hadn’t been jogging much since then.
I decided that while I was on holidays over
Christmas, I would try and get myself back to that time. I tried a few times, but wasn’t able to
do it.
Today, I just decided to keep going. After about 30 minutes or so, I started
to get into a rhythm, or ‘flow’.
This is described by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly as a mindset where things
flow, where what you are doing seems quite easy, and you get lost in it. It happens when the challenge of a task
is enough to keep you interested, but not too much that it is too
difficult. That’s what I felt
today. So I kept running. And when I got to 40 minutes, I
realised that I could be able to make 10km in 50 minutes. So I kept going, and I made it. Nearly fist-pumped the air when I did,
too!
In reflecting upon this, I learnt
something, well I was reminded of something that I already knew. And that is to never give up.
It’s a bit silly to think back on the other
times I had been jogging recently when I convinced myself I couldn’t make the
time, because I hadn’t even jogged for 50 minutes. I got to about 30 and decided that I wasn’t going to make my
goal so I stopped. ‘Just a
loosener today’, ‘I’ll have to work up to 50’… How did I expect to ever make 10km in 50 minutes if I never
even jogged for 50 minutes?
Also, if I had have given up in the first
20 minutes or so today, I never would have reached that flow stage. Sometimes, a task can be quite difficult
at first, and it’s only when we persist that it becomes easier.
And of course, if I hadn’t have kept going
to 50 minutes today, I never would have reached my goal.
So, never give up!!!
