The weather outside is frightful and the fire is so delightful...
Snowy and 9 degrees out with the wind chill.
And that is exactly why you should get outside and run or walk. So let’s look at 5 reasons why this is so important.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
This is a very odd world we live in. People tell me they want to get in shape but they are afraid of:
- Sweating
- Heat
- Cold
- Wind
- Excess humidity
- Rain
- Breathing hard
- Pain or discomfort
- Darkness
- UV rays
This comes from the fact that you really don’t have to put up with any of this in modern life.
But is this getting you to where you want to be?
Chances are it is not. There have been numerous psychological studies that point this out. The comfort zone everyone tries to build around themselves is actually a prison. A nice prison with big screen tv’s and pizza and nachos but it is still a prison.
You need to get out of your comfort zone to make a change.
Build discipline
No one is born with discipline, it is something that is developed. In a given day you make hundreds of decisions. Each decision either reinforces discipline or erodes it.
I may be one of the biggest procrastinators on the planet, no joke. I can put anything off and I don’t say that with pride. If I have a run planned it may take me an hour to get out the door but I end up doing it. The reason is simple. If you need to do something and you blow it off, it becomes that much easier to blow off in the future.
“Hey, it is too cold and wet out there, I will run next time”
No you won’t. You have made it okay not to workout. Do this on a continual basis and you will have created a habit. Habits are very hard to break so try and keep in mind the consequences of every decision. Be in the business of building healthy habits.
Missing the fourth day of working out is easier than missing the first day.
Fill the Cookie Jar
The cookie jar is a great David Goggins analogy that is spot on. I race 12 months a year in Colorado which means I get to see every kind of weather condition imaginable. I have run a half-marathon in the snow when it was zero degrees and I have run Spartan races when it was 94 degrees.
If you want to build mental toughness, then you need to have experiences that have tested you and you need to put them in your cookie jar. That way when times get rough and you want to quit, you can pull out a similar experience and tell yourself, “I have been through worse”.
I want my cookie jar overflowing with times where I have kept going in the face of adversity. If you quit every time things get hard, what action will your brain default to under stress? Exactly.
I don’t agree with this idea of fake it until you make it. It never made sense to me. You can tell yourself how disciplined you are all day and night but deep down if you don’t have a cookie jar with actual experiences your brain will know the difference. On the other hand, positive self-talk is extremely effective when you can reference actual events and relive those moments.
Clarification: The cookie jar can have experiences from all areas of your life. If you are walking in the cold rain and are feeling miserable and want to quit, you may not have a walking story in your jar but you may have another experience where you wanted to quit but didn’t. Use that one, it still reinforces the same idea.
Turn fear into your friend.
Our ancestors had real reasons to fear things. They were either going to:
- Get eaten
- Get attacked
- Starve
These are reasons to be afraid. If you skip your walk because you are afraid your feet are going to get wet, then you need to rethink this. This is your monkey or emotional brain coming up with the lamest of excuses to avoid potential discomfort. The only way to break through this imagined fear is to do it unconditionally. There should be no internal debate. You are not going to die and somebody won’t find you frozen to death in a snowdrift. In fact, once you are out there for a while I would bet you are going to enjoy it.
So think about fear as a test. Your brain is testing your resolve. That’s all.
Change Yourself
I have been on this planet fifty something years and I see two different kinds of people.
Happy people are those who get out of their comfort zone on a regular basis and chase the idea of who they want to be. I like to think I am in this group. Yes, sometimes I get frustrated by a lack of progress or I take on too much but at the end of the day I can look back and see that I am making progress.
Unhappy people tend to always look for the easy way out. You can call it a rut but really it is the avoidance of being challenged. If you don’t challenge yourself and have to deal with the very real possibility of failure, you aren’t living. You are existing. Modern life is created for you to exist and nothing more.
People who exist are easy to control. You can live in the matrix if you want to but you will never be happy.
Can one walk in the snow change your life? Yes.
The Bottom Line
As the founder of M Factor Fitness, my job is to give you the truth about getting in shape and excelling as you get older. Most of this stuff you won’t find online because it scares people away. If you aren’t ready to to change, I am okay with that. If you think there is an easier way, go for it.
In my experience, change is a hard process and it needs to be the right time for someone. For some people the time will never be right. That’s not my issue. I work with people ready to work towards becoming who they want to be.
My people are like family to me and I try to give them the tools to change.
If this is something you would like to get more information on, please fill out my contact form and we can set up a free, no-obligation 30 minute consult to see if my training is right for you.
