My New Year's affirmation is "I choose to be in charge of my habits. I let it be easy."
Fitness is nothing more than the result of habits, mostly involving exercise. So I've decided to let it be easy.
I'm using Psycho-Cybernetic's visualization techniques to create a new image: Don the Runner. (He's fit. He can run 30 minutes at a time, three days a week. At 60, he looks back and says, "It was in February of 2012 that I began to run. That's when I became a runner.")
...
To avoid becoming this statistic: "80% of runners stop after 4 weeks!" But 20% don't quit. I intend to be the one out of five who doesn't quit.
Today is Tax Day, and yesterday I did a practice 5K in preparation for next Saturday's race, the CSUF iCare 5K. The day before yesterday I built an eight foot privacy fence for my back patio. In the process, I strained my left calf. I found that out about three minutes in to my 39 minute run. Ouch.
Today my leg is much better. I'll be doing one to two mile workouts this week, and not very many of them... saving up for the "big event."
But the big event is really today: Don the Runner lives in my mind. Too often we let a false self-image impose non-existent boundaries. (Yes, there are some boundaries... I'll not be running any sub-six minute miles. I'm pretty sure that boat has sailed.) But what many say is impossible, really isn't. What we often say to ourselves in the guise of an Inner Critic, isn't really true, but we act as-if it is. Silly us.
On FaceBook Is yesterday:
Rereading Psycho-Cybernetics (hard copy... no e-book available). 1st read in 2008. Only I'm reading backwards through the chapters. Notable quotes?
"...the past need not predict the future."
"What now appears to be a miracle to others is simply my working to change my own self-image." Jeanne Sanders (Muscular Dystrophy sufferer)
"Little hinges swing big doors." W. Clement Stone
(This book -- Psycho-Cybernetics -- and this author -- Maxwell Maltz -- fathered the self-help movement and peak-performance via visualization.)
What if... you discovered that many of your limits were self-imposed because you believed some lies about who you could become?
What if...
Today, I'm celebrating Tax Day, because I'm still on the journey to improved fitness. A journey that includes running. A journey I'm enjoying as I stroll through today... Tax Day... and the four-week-80%-quit day.
I'm rereading Max's book, and I may post more notable quotes here.
I'm using his methods to realize New Year's goals. What do you want to realize? What would you undertake if you knew success was assured? What lies are your Inner Critic whispering in your ear to keep you from attempting what you are truly capable of? What if you could install an Automatic Success Mechanism? Would you?
