Sunday, February 08, 2015

the little voice that talks to me when I run

I am sure I am not the only person who has an internal dialogue that runs sometimes as I go about my day. The little voice can help me remember things that I need to do, rehearse how I want to say things, or remind myself of commitments and intentions. The little voice is with me also when I run. Usually it is an encouraging voice, but the other day...

LV: Hey! This is a lot of running today!

ME: Oh, it's not so bad. Just 2 more 2-minute running intervals after this one, and there's a walking rest in between. We've done it before.

LV: Yeah, but I'm tired. I worked all day. My feet are tired. This is boring.

ME: Four more minutes of running and a few more minutes of walking aren't so bad. We can do it!

LV: It won't make a difference if we finish the running now. We can walk longer. It's almost as good as running. I'm tired.

ME: Well, we could just run 5 intervals instead of 7. I'm sure it wouldn't set us back substantially.

LV: Good! That's just what I was thinking.

ME: But what if we get to the Sun Run in April, and we run 8 kilometers, then we say to ourself, "That's enough. We can just stop now. We don't need to run 10 kilometers really."

LV: Humph!

(by this time LV and me are running our 6th interval)

LV: Well, that's 6 intervals. Surely we can finish running and just walk. It won't hurt to skip the 7th interval.

ME: So then, at the Sun Run, we can run 9 kilometers then give up and say, "Nine kilometers is really as good as 10 kilometers. We don't need to run 10 kilometers, do we?"

LV: Oh shut up you smarty-pants.

ME: HA HA! (we are running our 7th interval by now)

ME: See. We did it! I knew we could.

LV: So did I. I was just messing with you.

ME: Thanks very much for that.

I am glad that I can almost always discern when it's right to heed my little voice's advice, and when it's right to talk back to it and say no. I have a feeling it's going to come around soon anyway, and act like this was all its idea in the first place.

question: do you have the little voice? what does it say to you?

mompoet - listening to my head, and my heart, with curiosity and openness

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