Run Away From Ego

The power of community cannot be denied. We feel the pulsing energy of a group that is motivated and inspired and let its beat carry us forward. As we move forward – it might begin to feel harder than anticipated to keep up with those around you. You miss a beat, fall out of time and don’t want to dance anymore.

Have I confused you? I know that we aren’t dancing. This is a running group. I am trying to soften the blow of what I really want to say with analogy.

Let me just get straight to the point – every time I facilitate a group like this there is one thing I can guarantee will happen. The ugliness of ego will rear its head. Ego makes us think that what others are doing impacts us. Everything is about us. As people post about their sessions – ego makes us react.

It can play out in one of two ways.

1.Someone looks at the post and notices the time that someone completed their run. Immediately ego makes you compare yourself to that person. You cant run at that pace – you basically crawled the last 500m of that distance. So you decide that this was a stupid idea to begin with, running is not for you and bail out. That’s ego. You might mask it as ‘insecurity’ or a ‘lack of confidence’ – but those are masks that our ego parades around in.

2.You make everything a competition. You only post pictures of the times that you are fairly confident will impress other people. You look at other peoples posts and are driven to beat them all. It’s a race to a finish line that doesn’t exist. Noone will be there to commend you – except your ego.

Don’t get me wrong, ego presents itself in many other ways. These are the two most common roadblocks I see people face. Either they want to quit or they take it so seriously that it becomes completely miserable.

The running requirements within this group are already a challenge! Committing to 3 runs a week is a big ask for most of us, and something we will be incredibly proud of at the end of our 10 weeks together. However, I will ask that you also challenge yourself to take notice of your thought patterns and the ways in which reactivity dictates your emotions. Posting in our online group is incredibly powerful for motivation and accountability – experience has shown us that the more regularly people contribute to an online group, the more likely they are to see a program through to the end. Choose to RESPOND instead of REACT. It is important that we acknowledge each others efforts and progress without allowing it to impact our sense of self worth or achievement.

Stay in your lane. Simply giving a 10km running program a crack is something to feel great about – we are so proud to have 30 amazing members jumping in and generating collective energy!

KEEP ON KEEPING ON !

Lena Phillips