Five more days until the new year! Now, I’m usually not the kind to make new years resolutions, but I think I’m going to have to this year. I’ve been kind of letting myself go over the last year in terms of fitness. I used to run pretty consistently; I’m talking like 3 or 4 times per week. I would lift weights occasionally, but mostly I was a runner. But I’ve been kind of slacking off over the last 6 months or so, and not only do I miss it, but I can also tell when I look at myself in the mirror, and I also feel different. You know all those people who say that exercise makes you feel good? They’re right. You notice it when you’re exercising, and you start to notice when it’s not there the first few workouts you miss, but then you kind of stop noticing it as your body gets used to not working out again. But then after a few months, you start to notice it again. That feeling. It comes out of nowhere and hits you and you realize “I need to start working out again.”
This blog is the only place I’m going to even mention this, though. I recently read a study that suggested that the more people you tell about your goals, the less likely you are to actually succeed at them. They said it has to do with the way your brain works. Basically, telling someone you’re going to do something activates the same areas of your brain as actually doing it. So let’s say you wanted to study Chinese, and you tell your friends “hey, I’m going to learn Chinese!” Your friends might all be like “whoa, cool!” And you feel good. And you’re less likely to actually learn Chinese.
I know it kind of sounds weird, but the results of the study showed that people who didn’t tell people about their goals were more successful in achieving them. And I’m not one to argue with data!
So other than mentioning it here, I’m not going to tell anyone or make a big deal out of it. I’m just going to start doing it again. I want to run because it’s something I want to do, and I don’t really care what other people think about it, anyway. I actually think I might start a day or two early. I found some trainers on sale last week and have all my stuff and there’s really no reason I couldn’t just get started tomorrow. It’s not like I need to wait until New Year’s Day or anything.