Today, while running down my favorite trail, I had this thought come to me: I’m the kind of person who generally sets high goals and has high standards. Then I think it’s realistic to beat those goals and live up to those standards. But something shifted as I approached a hill and saw some hikers in the distance. The instinctual side of me wanted to race ahead and pass them, but then I checked in with my body and found it to have quite a different opinion. It said, “Just keep a steady pace and you’ll eventually pass them. No need to speed up now and waste your energy.” I heeded this advice and proceeded to visualize the spot along the trail where I would pass. I chose a very realistic goal which gave myself ample time, even jogging at a leisurely pace.
Sure enough, I passed them about 50 feet prior to the spot I had imagined in my mind. It felt good knowing that I still surpassed my visualized goal, but didn’t have to push myself harder than necessary to do it. This got me thinking: why do we push ourselves so hard? I believe one of the reasons has to do with our habit formation. The basal ganglia is the part of our brain that allows us form habits and have pattern recognition. This means if you do something over and over enough, you’ll eventually build up a mental memory of it and then it becomes automatic. I had developed this “urge” to pass people from years of being in competitive environments where winning was prized. Now, I am trying to re-train my brain to adapt less competitive, more comfortable habits. This means setting more realistic goals and recognizing old behavioral patterns when they arise.
Today, I believe one of the hardest things for people to do, is to stop working. I don’t think the problem is that we don’t work hard enough, but that we work harder than we need to – or that we have a hard time stopping – even when our bodies need us to. We push ourselves to achieve and accomplish at the expense of other things. Hopefully this will be a reminder to keep your body’s interests in mind when setting goals and striving for excellence. You’ll get where you need to go eventually, the question is, can you make it easier on yourself and conserve your energy in the process?