Believe you can - The power of positivity & compound changes

[LoungeLizaard]

Now I sound like some insta-influencer! (I’m not!!)

Happy Monday everyone, as part of an answer within my sub 30 minute post over on the B210K forum, but it needed it's own spot!

I wanted to post about 2 other important lessons that have helped me exponentially. Firstly - The power of positivity or having a positive mind set - The high-level view of this is - Believe you can do it and believe in the process. Whether you are on week 4 looking dauntingly at week 5, or have graduated and you’re now thinking how do I get to 5k (lets face it, most of us couldn’t do 5k in 30 minutes – I still can’t, but that’s what my last post was about). Believe that you / your body can do it. Over half the battle on any of our journey’s is mental, where we tell ourselves we can’t, or we need to stop… and you might do, but only rarely. I learned a staggering statistic a while ago, that under laboratory conditions, when someone thought they were done, they had no more in the tank and couldn’t go on – They were only actually 40% “done”. To put that into some context. People always say “I train better with someone” or “My PT gets so much more out of me” or think of military training (I haven’t been) where people can achieve much more than they thought they were capable of… Whether it was conscious (with PT asking for more) or subconscious (with a crowd / buddy) people can achieve more, even if only a little.

Which is a nice segue into my 2nd lesson – make small sustainable incremental changes. You don’t need to add 10 minutes or 2k to each run. If you try and go to hard or to far it will actually reinforce the mental barrier that you want to break

Make small changes to gently break or push the mental barrier, add 1 minute for the next week. The following week add another minute and keep building. I can absolutely promise you, that if you can run for 30 minutes, you can add some more time, even if it’s only 30 seconds!

This is also true when running a shorter distance. Run 2k/3k instead of 5k and go slightly faster - do that once a week and you’ll find your 5k’s get faster over time.

Those small, incremental changes, over 6 months or a year can and will all add up to huge changes in your mental & physical health. The same process is true for improving your diet! The No.1 reason diets fail is people go “all out” and remove everything they “like” then miss it all, and ultimately give up. Just make small incremental changes and keep building. Which is a nice segue back to the start…..

Believe you can and believe in the process – be positive!

Support yourself by not being too hard on yourself – Just make a small change today, tomorrow (or next week) you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it before, and you can make one more.

That is the power of positivity – and it’s in you!

Enjoy your week guys & girls 😊

[Dreambird Graduate]

The power of positivity- l really liked what you posted - I need more positivity in my life I think. I always assume I can’t do something but this C25K forum / programme has really showed me I can do this for myself if I want to - and I really want to graduate and go on to run regularly. Not fussed on distance but I’ve found my fitness has improved so much and I’m feeling a whole lot more positive about myself. Thanks so much for your thoughts. 👍😊🏃🏼‍♀️

[LoungeLizaard Graduate in reply to Dreambird]

You can absolutely do it, just keep on making those small incremental changes - they all mount up to a big change that you'll see over a few months!

[Dolphin-Girl]

Thanks for sharing. This is my hope when I finish this. To add 30 seconds onto each run once I can do 30 minutes comfortably.

[LoungeLizaard Graduate in reply to Dolphin-Girl]

It really works - before you know it, you will have added 5 minutes, then 10 and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about and how you got there! lol.

Good luck

[FreedomToRun Graduate]

Thanks again. Really practical help. I’m thinking of doing a 20 min tonight but a little faster, then my normal 30 mins mid week, and finally my longer run on Saturday with the virtual running club (so true that helps and along with your encouraging words I broke through the 30 min block).

Does that sound a good plan?

[LoungeLizaard Graduate in reply to FreedomToRun]

Absolutely 👍

That would be a great week. And if you need to walk a little after 30 mins, then walk a little!

Glad these posts have helped. So often people think they are on their own going through it, when in reality, other are or have already been through it.

Good luck this week - don't forget write a 'Win' post on the weekend when you've been through the barrier!

Run happy!

[FreedomToRun Graduate in reply to LoungeLizaard]

Thanks so much and will post at the weekend!