Running Motivation: Run For the Future You

When you are struggling, take a time machine forward a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade. Think of what you do NOW and how it will affect your future.I don’t run for me, I run for her – the future me.

There was no part of me that wanted to wake up at 4 AM just to run. But I didn’t do it JUST to run. I ran for my health, for my strength, to practice discipline and because it makes me feel good, healthy and proud. I did it because I knew how I would feel AFTER the run was over. I knew how I’d look and feel in a week from now and a few weeks from now. Running is an investment in my future.

I’m not a fast runner. Some runs are pretty pathetic actually. Truth be told, most of them are probably pretty pathetic. But, I run – and I finish each run in victory because I beat my flesh into submission and didn’t let laziness rule me.

“But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” – 1 Corinthians 9:27

Running mirror’s the discipline I desire in other areas of my life. I might fight every step some days, but life is like a run. Some days are hard and you feel so heavy, and some days are light an easy.  You keep showing up no matter what the day holds.

If you can practice that in fitness, it will carry over in all other parts of your life. It’s a practice called discipline. Note, I said “practice”. You don’t just have it, you have to PRACTICE it. Like with any practice, you have good days and bad days, but you keep showing up and continuing to practice what you desire to improve. It’s not always fun, but it’s always rewarding.