52 Lives

Imagine the following scenario. You have promised yourself to change your habits and start exercising on a regular basis. You make a plan what your going to do on each day. You have bought new running shoes, since you’re going to be running so much you need new good shoes. You have everything set for your new life style. You wake up the next morning and it’s time to move your butt. A quick look out the window before the run and then what happens?

Your mind starts fighting back. It keeps creating all kinds of excuses for you not to go out. “Go back to bed, you could sleep for an extra hour” it tells you. “Look at the weather, it’s impossible to run there.”. You start to have second thoughts. “You can go later. The weather will be better then and you won’t be so tired. You crazy guy, you woke up so early, no use to run when you’re not in 100% condition”. Now you start giving yourself some slack: “Naaaaa… I can skip today’s training and start tomorrow. It’s not good to start today, tomorrow I’ll be prepared for this whole exercising thing. Yeah, back to bed to get more sleep” .

I used to do this a lot. My mind is like a bottomless well when it comes to creating excuses. Luckily there’s a cure and it’s really simple.

Counter arguments

In the past I’ve had two jobs that included selling. The valuable lesson learned was that you need to have excellent arguments why the customer should by your product. Then the customer will tell why he doesn’t need the product or why he doesn’t want to buy it from you. Then you will tell your counter arguments to turn the customer’s head around and close the deal. (I’ve learned better selling tactics later, but these serve as an example ).

OK, so now think that you are the guy selling the product (exercising) to your customer (your mind). The mind keeps telling you why it doesn’t need exercising and then you kick in with your killer counter arguments! Ten minutes later you’ll be happy you didn’t listen to your excuses. Twenty minutes later you think it was outrageous to even think not going exercising! Trust me, the great feeling you get from exercising is worth more than all thegold in the world!

My Top 5 excuses

OK, here are my most used, most efficient excuses. In the mornings I usually go for a run, so my excuses relate to running. I have given up on them so many times that I know the bad sides of them. By knowing your enemies strengths (excuses) and weaknesses (bad things that follow when you give up on them) you can make your list of killer counter arguments. Here we go:

1. I’m so sleepy that I can not go. Waking up at 5 o’clock, 6 or 7 doesn’t make a difference, I’m always as tired. The solution here is not to take sleepiness as an excuse. Put your gear on and get out! That’s the cure. Once you have been running for 5-10 minutes, the sleepiness will go away. Kimi Räikkönen, a Finnish formula driver once said in an interview that it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t get sleep the night before a race. Once he sits in the car his fully concentrated and ready to go. What makes things even easier is that I have gone back to bed many times and slept for an extra hour. The result? I’m still tired and I haven’t exercised.
2. Bad weather. It’s not mind blowing to go outside when it’s dark and raining nor when it’s dark and cold (the most typical finnish weather types ). But this is an issue of preparation. First thing is to have running gear for different weather conditions. I have water proof clothes for rainy days and warm underwear for the cold ones. Second thing is to gather the clothes in one place a night before the run. If you start searching for your stuff early in the morning, you’ll lose time and give more time for excuses. And extra information: the rain usually looks worse when you look out the window. Once you get yourself out properly equipped and sweating, you don’t even think about the rain!
3. I don’t have time. There are mornngs when I have snoozed the alarm clock and gotten up 10 minutes (or hours ) later than I had planned. Then I ask myself: do I have 30 minutes? It’s an important question, since in that time I can dress up (5 mins), run for 15 minutes and then have 10 minutes for shower. Do I have 30 minutes? You bet I have.
4. I’m hungry. This excuse usually occurs in the evening. I’ve come home from work and getting ready to go for a run. My stomach protests against, saying that now is the time to eat something! Unfortunately eating and exercising don’t mix, there has to be time to digest the food. The good news is that feeling hungry is quite the same as feeling sleepy. You just have to go and after 10 minutes the feeling just disappears. After the run it takes some time (20-30 min) to feel hungry again.
5. I just don’t feel like it. This is the last of the list, but not the least! After running and waking up early for several weeks there comes times when you just couldn’t care less. You’d rather eat the running shoes than wear them. Actually this is not only an excuse, it’s also a warning signal that something should be changed. If you’re training for fun, there’s nothing left when the fun is gone! What I’ve done in these situations is that I’ve either changed the running route or tried some other sport. I try to run different routes every day, but there have been days I just take the bike/car and go to a totally new place (beach/forest). New scenery helps and you have a chance to break your routine. Instead of running I have taken my roller blades and went skating. Swimming is also a good alternative, you get your weight off your feet (good for the back!) and you can practise your breathing technique. These kinds of changes do miracles on the motivation! Whatever keeps you moving is better than staying still and trying to find the lost motivation.

Beat your excuses and enjoy the run!

Excuses seem to be waterproof sometimes, but what I have learned is that they are, well … excuses. I mean that the cold weather couldn’t stop me from running, it’s not impossible to run in the snow and cold. I just need to step out from my comfort zone and get out there. The feeling that I get from exercising is thousand times better than the feeling of comfort when staying in on a cold day.

But after all said here, I still sometimes give up for my excuses

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