My hiking morning goes something like this: I get on my hiking gear, jump in my car and drive up to the trailhead parking lot. This is about a mile from my home. The hike I usually take, especially in the winter, is up in the foothills of the mountain. It’s consists of a trail that goes in a loop where the trail runs along the lower portion of the foothills and then it heads up a very steep part of the mountain and loops back on another trail across a higher portion of the foothills and then back down to the trailhead parking lot. Got that?

I’ve been doing this every morning except Sundays and I have quite enjoyed it. I’ve hiked this trail quite a bit over the last three years but my consistency has been spotty at best. There would be months go by at a time that I wouldn’t do any hiking and then other months where I would be consistent. The goal is to do it every day. So I’ve been doing it very consistently for the last several weeks.

Well, a few days ago I stayed up late working on a project. (See Staying Up Late – Is It Worth It?) So the next morning I was exhausted. I slept in. When I got up I was very disappointed with myself. I realized I just didn’t have time to go hiking that morning for the first time in a long time.

So, as I went through my morning, running behind schedule, I found myself just dragging and very down on myself. I felt so discouraged and frustrated. I felt like I was missing something, that things just weren’t right. I couldn’t picture myself going through the day without my morning hike.

Finally, as I was sitting there pondering what to do, I turned to my wife and said, “You know, I don’t really care how late I go in to work, I’m going hiking.” So I got on my hiking gear and went out and did my morning hike. It was wonderful. I loved it. When I got home from my hike I felt so much better inside.

I started thinking about what happened there and I realized that I have become addicted to hiking. I was actually experiencing withdrawal symptoms from not going on my hike. It was good to realize that I was becoming addicted to hiking and that when I didn’t do it I was in fact experiencing withdrawal pains.

I’ve heard of people becoming addicted to running or other healthy lifestyles or activities. I can’t say that I’ve ever been addicted to running. I’ve done a lot of running in my life. I’ve run nine marathons. They were tough and the training was tough but I never found myself addicted to it.

For me hiking is different. It’s definitely a workout. In fact, as I tape-record this blog entry while hiking you can hear me huffing and puffing on my tape. But for me, hiking is also a mental exercise too. It gets my mind going and gets me away from the day-to-day cares of home and it gets me out among nature. There is a feeling there that is hard to describe. It’s a wonderful feeling. I don’t know if it’s the endorphins getting going in my brain or what, but I enjoy it very much. I was pleased to see how much it affected me when the thought of not going went through my mind.

So what is my self-mastery message today? It is this: Find something like hiking or biking or swimming that you enjoy doing and do it every day. I know two individuals who do this. One I see out nearly every morning on his bike. The other I know goes every morning to the local community pool and swims laps. I would imagine that they most likely have the same experience that I have where it’s something they look forward to every morning and when they don’t do it their day doesn’t feel complete, like they are missing something and their whole day is affected.

My wife Lisa is most definitely addicted to running. She is the most dedicated runner I know. No matter what, she is out running every morning and if for some reason she can’t go it influences her whole day. I think the morning hike is becoming the same thing for me.

My message to you is to find something that will do that same thing for you. Maybe it’s running, maybe it’s hiking, maybe it’s an aerobic workout on a DVD or maybe it’s running on your treadmill. The idea is to find something positive that you can become so addicted to that your day will not feel complete without it. Once you get to this point you look forward every day to your workout. It’s not something you dread any more.

May you be unstoppable in your efforts to take care of your mind and body.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Thank you.
Copyright © 2008 Garold N. Larson

Are you having trouble getting yourself to act on your goals? Is your motivation, shall we say, pathetic? I was experiencing this recently until I did one thing: I made a commitment.

When I say I made a commitment, I don’t mean I made a decision. A decision is good but it lacks power. A commitment is something you do that is more tangible and real.

The commitment I made was to sign up for my 10th marathon. I spent the $80 and registered. Now I am committed.

Making that small commitment has had a great effect on my daily exercise program. I was having trouble getting out every morning to run or exercise. My motivation was anemic at best. I knew I needed something to motivate me to get out there every day. That’s when I decided to run another marathon. But that was just a decision. The commitment came when I actually put my non-refundable money where my mouth was.

I’m reminded of the story of General Cortez when he landed his armies in Mexico to fight the Aztecs. To insure victory, he ordered the burning of their ships so there would be no means of retreat. By burning the ships it gave the soldiers only two options: win the war or perish. Now that is what I call commitment!

There is great power in making commitments. Here are three ways commitments can help:

1. You have a goal to work towards.

When I was getting up each morning to simply go out running I had no real reason to do it. Sure, I wanted to be healthy but sometimes that’s not enough. When I committed to run a marathon it gave me a very clear-cut and definable goal to shoot for.

2. You will experience pain if you don’t follow through.

Let’s face it, we are all motivated to avoid pain. When I was trying to exercise each morning without a commitment, failure to do it wasn’t too painful. Now that I’ve made a commitment, failure to exercise each morning will result in a very painful failure, the pain and humiliation of not completing a marathon.

3. The decision is already made.

When you make a commitment, it locks you into a decision. There is no wondering for me each morning whether I should go running or not. The decision is made. (See article Decide to Decide).

My challenge for you is to examine your goals and find ways that you can make a real commitment to do them. Burn your ships, so to speak. Put your money where your mouth is. Commit!

Thank you.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Copyright © 2008 Garold N. Larson

I’ve decided that from time to time I would put the spotlight on individuals who are great examples of self-mastery in some area of their lives. I feel we learn more and gain more confidence in ourselves when we see what other people are able to accomplish. I’ll call these people I spotlight “Self Mastery Heroes.”

The first person I would like to shine the spotlight on is someone I know extremely well – my wife Lisa!

My hero!

There are those people who call themselves runners and then there are the true runners. Lisa is a true runner. There is absolutely nothing that stops her from getting out in the morning and doing her daily run. Every morning, as faithful as the sun rising, but long before, Lisa is up and out there running. You could set your watch by her. She has been doing this for ten years and there is no sign she is stopping.

Every morning, Monday through Saturday, Lisa is out running. She and her running partner Ramona run whether it’s pouring rain, snowing, windy, icy, or pitch dark. Even a cold or the flu will not stop them. Some days it is all of the above at once and yet they are out running! There is no daily decision as to whether they are going running or not. They just go! THAT is self-mastery!

How it all started

Let me back up a little. Being the mother of six children is no easy task for a woman. I have no personal experience at being pregnant but I could tell that it was not a fun thing for Lisa to go through. Her body was stretched in ways you would never dream it could stretch. It was easy to gain weight. She was tired much of the time. The birth itself, being the miracle that it is, was still an enormous ordeal to go through. Then after going through this whole difficult process, we went and did it five more times!

So after the sixth child Lisa’s body was not in the greatest shape. She made the determination that she was going to get into shape, bought her an exercise machine and began working at it every day.

She saw progress but it wasn’t enough. So she began walking every morning with her friend Dennise. She began to lose the pregnancy weight and started to feel much better physically.

The running begins

One day her walking partner talked her into running part of the way. Lisa had never been a runner and wasn’t too excited about running. But her friend’s pressure was too much and so they ran part of the way. It was HARD! But the next day they did it again, going a little further. Gradually she began to like running and could actually run for several miles.

This is when another friend, Amy, who had run several marathons, convinced her she could run one too. So her marathon training began.

Marathon training

I watched Lisa go through this training and was amazed at the progress she made. Day after day, week after week and month after month she trained. In 1998 Lisa ran the St. George, Utah marathon. It was an amazing experience to watch her go through. It took a huge amount of self-mastery to accomplish this goal.

Now, 15 marathons later, Lisa is still going. In fact, as I write this at 6:30 a.m. Lisa is out there on this dark, cold, snowy morning, doing a 14 mile training run. Nothing stops her. She is amazing. She is my hero.

Do you know someone who has an amazing self-mastery story? Is there some area of your life that you have mastered and would like to share with us? Please share your thoughts and experiences.

Thank you.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Copyright © 2008 Garold N. Larson