10km in 68 minutes – the timing of my first race. Not impressive for seasoned runners who would complete that in less than 30minutes but great for a novice who could barely run for 5 minutes at a stretch at the treadmill 3 months back. This is just the beginning and the target is to better the timings over and over again. As I look back I could straightaway relate to some key life learnings
Practice makes a Person Perfect – The more you practice, the better you get. Be it running or any other activity, if you have to develop your skills you have to do it again and again to master that art.
No Shortcut to Success – You have to sweat it out, invest good amount of time and structure your program for getting the best out of your routine. No pain, no gain.
Slow and Steady wins the Race – The best part of running is to complete the race. The marathon runner who comes last also gets a standing ovation. For him, it is about completing the race. Do not get carried away by runners overtaking you. It will invariably increase your speed and eventually lead to loss of stamina and might end in you not completing the race. Maintain your own steady pace and work it to the finish line.
Plan your Strategy – Before any race, you need to have a strategy in place to reach the finish line. For e.g. start slow, pick up pace, slow down and then for the final leg increase your tempo. If you don’t have a strategy in place it will be very tough to complete the job successfully or achieve it at your desired level.
Stay Focused – When you are running, after some distance it becomes a mind game. Your mind will tell you to stop but you need to stay focused and keep running. There is a constant communication with yourself where you are telling yourself to carry on. Staying focused will help to ensure that the “can do it” overcomes the “I can’t do it”. In our day to day lives there are many obstacles/de-motivation etc. which tells us to stop but you have to stay focused and achieve your goals.
Don’t Quit – One thing which runners learn is not to quit until it’s over. As an individual with proper planning, practice, focus and strategy it becomes impossible for anybody to quit. This rubs on to the personality and voila – you see magic happening at all your spheres of work.
Eat what you want (my personal favorite) – Being a foodie, I always had the guilt of overeating. Now I know that I am going to burn out those extra calories by running. So I have absolutely no guilt of eating. Eat and then sweat it out has become the mantra. Enjoy your food and that should be the biggest motivation for anybody to take running as a hobby.
I guess the most important takeaway is that during running you are talking to yourself. In our busy lives, we hardly get a chance to spend time with ourselves, forget talking with self. While you are out for a run, after some time your mind can’t think of anything else except talking to you. Trust me and try running and let me know the magical transformation of yourself.
Sanjeet Kumar Sen is the Country Marketing Manager (Cloud and SMB) at Symantec.
Published with permission from his blog
