There was a time in my life when I’d only ever run towards food or away from danger. Never in my wildest dreams would I consider running long distances fun. Yet here I am with running as my current favorite hobby.
Something changed in my perspective when living in Japan without access to a gym to lift weights. Along the Sumida River runs a seemingly endless network of parks and boardwalks surrounded by the city’s glistening skyscrapers. In the 90+ degree heat, I’d decide to run and walk my way through a couple of sporadic miles. I was simply not a runner, but I wanted to maintain my identity as a fit and disciplined person.
In the world of psychology this is called “Identity-Based Motivation”. I call myself a runner; therefore, a person like me would enjoy running. And by regularly going on runs I build up stamina, genuinely start to enjoy runs, and ultimately reinforce that I am indeed a runner!
Last month, I started a new night class with some pretty hefty textbooks. Being a class for laypeople, many of my peers are rather dismayed by the doctrinal-level reading assignments that somehow have to be balanced with their regular lives. On syllabus night, one of the teachers gave a rather lengthy running metaphor to talk about being faithful to your studies:
Imagine you’ve trained for a marathon — that takes an incredible time commitment away from your daily life. You either spend a few hours running before the sun comes up or after a long day’s work. Backed my months of effort, you cross the finish line and gain a huge sense of accomplishment. Some runners had lots of time to train and started with a higher fitness level, so they finish in 2:19:00. Others might have had a lot on their plate, but they still pushed themselves to be faithful in training, so they finished in 4:38:00 with a huge sense of accomplishment.
Whether at a 2:19:00 or a 4:38:00, running a marathon is a huge deal. Only about 0.1% of the world population will ever complete one. Most people can’t just get up off the couch one day and run the full 26.2 miles — it requires faithfulness in training.
Likewise, this class is a bit like a marathon. The reading gets long some weeks and the content is dense. So whether you finish all the reading each week or life happens and you do the best you can, commit to showing up each week for your peers and for yourself. Some people can run this class at a 4:38:00 pace, others at a 2:19:00 pace, and both are wonderful!
But it’s not okay for someone capable of a 2:19:00 to run at a 4:38:00 pace. Just because you are able to coast through this class doesn’t excuse you from putting forth the effort to challenge yourself and grow.
How often in life do you approach your goals with that type of mindset? This is a way of life that applies in my physical training, studies, Japanese language learning, relational intentionality, and my jobs. It challenges the very core of my motivation to work well.