{"id":11844,"date":"2019-11-29T13:24:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T18:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/macarthurmedi1.wpengine.com\/?p=11844"},"modified":"2019-11-29T13:24:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T18:24:22","slug":"making-a-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/blog\/2019\/11\/29\/making-a-change\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Became a Person Who Runs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deciding is the first step in making a change<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

It took me 47 years and a medical degree to learn that regular exercise was an important step to a happy life.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

When I exercise I feel great. The dopamine and endorphins kick in. My stress goes down. My energy goes up. When I don\u2019t exercise, I feel sluggish, unmotivated and struggle with my weight. So why is it a battle every day to do it?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My brain fights me. Inertia kicks in<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

My mind ventures to convince me it is easier to do nothing than to do something. I am the king of excuses. One evening after work I went to change into my running clothes. The thought in my head was \u201cI can\u2019t exercise today because I would have to change my shoes.\u201d #badexcuse.\u00a0In my mind, this was a perfectly rational reason why I should skip exercising.\u00a0Other common excuses that pop into my mind are:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u201cI just ate.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u201cIt will be too late to eat when I am finished.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u201cI will do it tomorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u201cI deserve a day off .\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u201cI am too tired.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My first step was simply deciding that \u201cI was someone who runs.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/a> My wife bought me some running shoes for my birthday. I had not gone jogging in at least 15 years. They sat lonely in the closet untouched for a few months. In January 2019, I heard a podcast that discussed the running app\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Couch to 5K,\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/em>and it intrigued me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> That night I opened the app, put on the shoes, and went out to run. I decided I was a person who runs. Period. No more inner monologue debates. No excuses. It was decided. Now, eleven months later I am training for a half marathon.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> Self Improvement changes in my life come from these moments<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/a> I just decide \u201cthis is what I am going to do.\u201d Once the decision is made then there is no more thinking about it. No more deciding. It is over. Done. When I find myself saying things like \u201cI need to lose weight\u201d or \u201cI should eat better\u201d then I fail in the long run.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> The reason I fail is that I have not committed or internalized the decision. I have not truly decided. My coworkers and I discussed this idea one day. Later that week some visitors brought donuts. I overheard my teammate decline the snacks by saying \u201c I am not someone who eats donuts.\u201d Turning down the delicious delicacy was easy for someone who does not eat donuts.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> New challenges<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/a> Now that I am a person who runs I no longer think about whether or not I will exercise today. My Mindset has changed. That debate is over. Now I ask myself how far can I go?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you to<\/span> Live Your Life on Purpose<\/a> for publishing this article on Medium<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By Dr. Jeff Livingston<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deciding is the first step in making a change It took me 47 years and a medical degree to learn that regular exercise was an important step to a happy life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-livingston","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expioconsulting.com\/macarthur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}