Your Body Will Adapt To Whatever Your Mind Want To Do
You can endure pain, but you need to change how you see yourself first
Running was an activity I started around 4 years ago which I did frequently, but ultimately lost interest and stop within the same year.
I can’t remember why I stop. Maybe it was achieving my goals such as doing a 10k run and a Spartan Race, but I completely stop for more than 3 years… until last month.
As I have started running again, pain and injuries came back as well.
Per usual, no pain insight for the first 10–15 minutes of the run. I focused on my breath, observed the nature around me, and was careful about my left knee. But of course, the pain came back. It might have been the uneven road or a simple misstep from my lack of attention but my knee started to sting with pain each time my feet touch the ground.
I could’ve stopped, but I didn’t. I was already far away from my apartment, so I continued. Nonetheless, I was still careful. I reduce my pace and focus on every step I made to reduce my pain.
Something interesting started to happen around the 30 minutes mark. The pain was gone. It was numbed. I still expected some pain each step I took, but it was not there.
It was getting easier.
So I kept going.
8k.
10k.
12k.
The Body Adapts To His Environment
We are all capable of much more than we think. The body can adapt to whatever the mind sets out to do.
I had no choice but to run.
My mind knew it and my body knew it.
Either I stop running and walked for hours in pain, or I keep my pace and reduce the distance between my apartment and me.
I choose running.
Nothing could stop me at this point.
This concept, pushing through pain and the body adapting to it, can be applied in all aspects of life.
Creative work. Entrepreneurship. Learning. Etc.
If you are willing to push through the initial pain, hurdle, and mental blockage of any endeavors, your body and mind will adapt to the situation. It might take 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, but eventually, if you are dedicated and decided, you will get in a flow and forget about the pain.
This is something I personally struggle with. Day by day, I’m building my mental toughness through physical pain, but I still need to develop it through mental pain.
This means writing, building a business, learning, or anything considered creative. I struggle to sit down and write for 15 minutes without being distracted. I never get into a creative flow and most of my writing sessions are just wasted away.
Writing this post was a hurdle.
“Let’s see what is on Facebook”
“Let’s see if there is a new video on Youtube”
“Let’s see the price of Bitcoin”
“Let’s see who texted me”
Blah blah…
I’m not looking forward to waste my time over trivial activities, but I have built a habit to seek entertainment the second I face a challenging thought. Whether it is a blank page, or editing my photography, or thinking about building a business, I crave entertainment and distraction the second I need to make an effort.
It is not a desire problem.
It is a habit problem.
And to change your habit, you need to change how you see yourself.
Maybe you don’t see yourself as a hard-working person… and maybe you are not. Maybe you are actually lazy, unmotivated, and passive.
It is fine, but you need to identify and that fact before you can change yourself. You need to look yourself in the mirror and accept that you are not a “hard-working person”.
Though, from that acceptance, move forward and remove that weakness. You remove it by changing your identity to “I am a hardworking person” and tackle that identity every day with small actions and small wins. The more you do it, the faster your identity and habit will change.
You want to be a writer. Start by writing every day for 30 minutes. Increase the time the easier it gets.
You want to be a YouTuber. Film yourself every day for 30 minutes or edit your video every other day.
It is not complicated. You just need to decide who you want to become and act the way that person would act… every day.
The first few minutes might be painful, annoying, or dreadful, but once those thoughts are forgotten, your mind will tell itself:
“Might as well continue”
Do the minimum first.
But do more as it gets easier.
