An Honest Jogging (It Is Not About Jogging!)

You maybe got the idea about “false jogging”. I am happy to have realized (similar to many other people) how glorious, how self-respectful, how harmonious (for body and mind) jogging could be. You also knew that. Nothing new! Now, let me tell you something else.

I went jogging exactly … twice ... since I wrote that article. Twice! Then, I turned back to my routine jogging, accompanied by the following lovely self-talk: "It’s cold outside and it’s so cosy in here. It’s just so stressful to get dressed and go out and it is so calm to stay at home. I like to have it calm and cosy. It’s so exhausting to go out there and push myself the first 200m before I die. It saves so much energy and pain to use the couch for the next 200 min and read a book. Besides, I learn so much." 

But you knew it, didn’t you? Creating a healthy habit is hard. And painful. And there are so many "good" reasons not to do it.

Let me tell you something! It is not about jogging! It is about something much bigger here! Much more important! 

It is about the talk that takes place between those two beautiful ears!

This talk, this dialogue, creates my experience! This talk creates my whole life! 

The talk that lulls me into a story and makes me so distant to my great goals and the things that matter to me. 

The truth is, my mind is a Bitch! (Yours too.)

Yes, my mind - that thing in there, which is not me but a part of my human experience; that thing which is constantly crossing my plans but is supposed to help me. That thing called ego, powers of reasoning, powers of comprehension, powers of thought, understanding, judgement, sense, mentality, perception. That very thing is a nightmare, a bastard, a swine, a pig. It complaints, it moans, it gripes, it protests, it whines. It is so unreliable when it comes to action. It feels so strenuous to talk the mind into a good cause! Over and over, and over again... till I lose.

There is a small trick to switch that ...thing off. It is the 5-second-rule (by Mel Robbins). Basically, before you start the whole exchange of views, discourse, discouragement, argumentation, dispute, war of words, wrangling, sparring, disputation, disagreement, conflict, disharmony, negotiations, talks, dialogue, comment ... with your inner Bitch!, you start counting backwards. You count like that: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... and you just ... go. You launch yourself like a rocket! You don't look back for a nice chat with the mind! Otherwise you lose! The doing suffocates the long inner conflict. It wipes away the table for all the terrible reasons your mind will cook and serve you and you will happily eat and get doped.

My dear friend Simon from my Working Out Loud Circle shared with me the following page: Get running with Couch to 5K. This is a program I will download on my phone, leave my running shoes at the door, write down in my calendar my daily jogging slot. And when the time comes, I will ...5, 4, 3, 2, 1, run. That is my plan. 

But the plan is of course not for today. Today I am still on the couch (actually a chair). The great plan is for tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. Don't know yet. I need to prepare the settings.... I need to write down in my calendar, I need to get ready ... You know, life is long enough, it will wait for me to put my jogging shoes...when I am ready ... and the weather outside get nicer ...

...I am telling you, the mind is a Bitch ... 5-4-3-2-1-run! otherwise you lose!