What 1,000 Days Of #runeveryday Has Taught Me About Navigating Life
Looking forward, the thought of doing anything every day for 1,000 days is overwhelming. Looking backwards, after running 10km a day for 1,000 days, I can say with confidence that it is not a superhuman physical effort. It is, however, a substantial logistical and mental effort. But, as I have learned, a simple reframing of how you think about it can unlock capabilities that you never knew you had.
Here are 5 insights that I have uncovered from #runueverday that help me navigate other parts of my life:
Time: Your sense of time can be distorted depending on your state of mind. If you run at 6min/km, it will take 1 hour to run 10 km. On some days, that hour can feel like 10 minutes. On other days it can feel like a 2-hour slog. Time gets distorted depending on your state of flow. A state of flow can make a process feel effortless. Flow comes from consistent practice where time melts away and is of little consequence.
Health: Fitness is a proxy for health. It is a monumental effort to get it back when you lose it. There are no shortcuts. The time and effort to maintain it is a very small price to pay when you have it. The problem is that you only learn this once you lose it. Consistently doing something every day is a minimal cost with a considerable reward.
Wealth: A great measure of wealth is the amount of control you have over how you spend your time. Being selfish and allocating a piece of your time every day to something that matters only to you is the best gift you can give yourself. The challenge then becomes to increase that time allocation as much as possible. The more time you can allocate to yourself, the more your wealth will increase.
Ego: Mimicry is an evolutionary trait in many species. Humans are especially good at it. We copy others and then signal our success and virtue like trophies on the mantle. Running every day for 1,000 days is a trophy on my mantle. This trophy validates my ego, and I like to shine it. The problem is having too many trophies and spending too much time shining them. There must be a balance between earning trophies and shining trophies. This requires constant personal reflection.
Recovery: Slowing down is where the magic happens, but my ego disagrees. My ego wants to run further and faster. My mind and body often want to go slower. Stepping away, taking a break, slowing down makes space for new thinking and different perspectives. I always get faster after I go slow. My ego tells me that going slow is being lazy. My ego cannot see past the shining trophies. I need to constantly remind myself that navigating life often happens while stopped at a garage to refuel.
As I reflect on these lessons, I realise that there is much more to say on each one. I also realise that they are interconnected, as life is. Like a spider’s web, pulling one strand vibrates in the others.
Justin Spencer-Young
