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 Gary N. Larson

I’m actually running on a trail right now as I tape-record my thoughts. It’s interesting that while you’re running along a trail you’re brain has the ability to look ahead and then plan where to place each foot. This seems to happen as an automatic function of the brain. I look ahead on the trail and take in what’s coming, whether it’s a rock or a stump or a curve in the trail. My brain processes that information and tells my body where to place my feet. I don’t have to think about every footstep. It’s an amazing process to me of how, by looking ahead, I know where to put my feet on the trail.

Yes, I’ve slipped up a couple of times and made some mistakes. It usually happens when I take my eyes off the trail and look in some other direction. My brain had insufficient information to tell my feet where to go; therefore I stumble and sometimes fall.

Can we relate this to life? I think so. We can’t just concentrate on what we are doing at the moment. We need to look ahead in our lives and see what’s coming and plan for it so when the time comes we’re ready. We need to process the information ahead of time so when the time comes we already know where to put our feet. The idea or concept is that of making future plans.

I like the idea and have seen benefits of sitting down on Monday morning and looking at my whole week, seeing what’s going on each day and thinking about it and planning ahead. If I see a presentation coming up on Thursday I know I can’t start on that presentation on Thursday. I’ve got to begin preparing and working on it ahead of time.

In this way I think trail running is like life. We need to look ahead and plan in advance in order for our feet to be planted properly in the here and now. You’re todays will go much better when you look ahead at your tomorrows.

Thank you.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Copyright © 2008 Gary N. Larson