Welcome to Running to Myself. I’m Trisha Stanton. Life and mindset coach, running coach and host of Running to Myself.
16 years ago I ran my first marathon. The process of training for that first race changed my life. This podcast is my opportunity to share some of the lessons I have learned about running and life through the many ups and downs of life during my almost 2 decades of running and learning more about who I am. It is my hope that through my stories maybe you will see a bit of yourself as well and find a nugget of truth and inspiration to take with you. Let’s get started.
Welcome to Episode 7, Side Trail
We are taking a short side trail on today’s episode. I feel the need to disclose to you before we begin that anyone who has ever hiked or run with me more than once gets a little worried when I have the idea to take a side trail. Sometimes I get a little lost on these impromptu excursions, but the whole point of a side trail is to see where it will go, to have a different experience. So here we are and I am going to take you on a side trail pretty early in our podcast relationship. I hope you will enjoy it more than my running partners! I promise not to get you lost!
My running life can be split into two parts. Part 1 is where running taught me that I could do hard things. Part 2 is where running gave me a way to work through hard things. And in the middle there was a bit of dysfunction followed by a breakup. Running broke up with me. That is something that we will take a deep dive into some day but not today. In this episode we are taking a side trail and momentarily jumping from the very beginning of my journey, the part where I was just learning that I could do hard things to present day where running helps me work through hard things. I am going to share something that just happened a few days ago while I was working through some doubt and second guessing of my own.
For several days I was really struggling with the content for the episode this week. The ideas that seemed great a few weeks ago felt flat to me each time I sat down to write. I know it wasn’t the ideas that were the problem. It was me. I am working on something new in my coaching program that feels about as big to me as taking on that first marathon. Like the marathon, I don’t know if I have what it takes to pull it off and at times it feels really scary. So scary in fact, that I find the need to remind myself that if I could go from zero miles to 26 in just four months that I can do this too. That’s right, I still use that experience as evidence that I can do hard things! This new content that I am working on for my coaching program is all my brain wants to think about right now. And it has me alternating between excited and terrified all day long. This new project is running in the background of my mind all the time right now.
I have a schedule for when I write and record the podcast each week that has been working really well for me, but this week that schedule was altered by a few days. The combined shifting of my schedule with my brain working in overdrive on this new project culminated in me getting stuck and then distracted while I was trying to create this week’s episode. I don’t know what you do when you are feeling stuck, but I tend to divert my attention to something that I can do that produces an immediate result so I can feel better. Let’s just say, my tile floors got mopped really well yesterday. Sometimes cleaning helps me get unstuck and sometimes it just leads to enjoying a clean house while feeling stuck.
I was really frustrated. When something is on my calendar, it gets done. And the content just wasn’t getting done. The discipline was there and the willingness to write out every idea to see where it would lead was there, but I was not satisfied with the result, so I made the decision to step away from it for the night and come back to it in the morning for a fresh perspective. This was not an easy decision for me to make because of my commitment to complete what I set out to do each day. But recording a podcast episode that didn’t resonate with me just to be able to cross it off my list for the day wasn’t a good enough reason to keep pushing. I knew it was the right thing to do, to set it aside and come back to it the next day, but I still had that unfinished task hanging over me like a cloud that I could not get out from under.
Morning came and the cloud of unfinished business was right there waiting for me to get up with the added pressure that I had a limited amount of time to spend on this project during the day. I had my coffee, did a little writing, and still nothing was coming to the surface that I was happy with so I set out for my run.
Here’s the beautiful thing about Part 2 of my running journey, the part where I get to use running to work through hard things… all my best ideas come to me while I am out running. Sometimes they feel like they just fall out of the heavens and into my brain. This was one of those days. Are you ready? Get something to write with because we are jumping straight into the Life Coach Connection and you are going to want to be able to use this one for yourself.
Here it is, the idea that dropped from the heavens straight into my very grateful brain: Let it be easy.
That’s it. Let it be easy. As soon as I recognized that this idea was about the podcast, I knew I had to share it with you even if it meant that this was the only thing I had to say. There are so many parts of life that are going to be hard. That are already so so hard. We all have them. We will all continue to have different hard parts, but some things don’t have to be hard. They don’t have to be forced. And sometimes we need a reminder that we can CHOOSE to let some parts be easy.
What about you? In the middle of all the hard or serious things, is there one thing that you can decide could be easy today?
What would it take to release the grip on that thing so that it could be easy?
What if you made it a practice to look for the part of each day that can be easy because you choose for it to be easy?
That’s all I have for you today, my friends. I hope this simple idea will be as impactful for you as it was for me. I hope it sticks with you throughout the week and brings a lightness to your days. You can find previous episodes on apple podcasts and spotify or on my website www.trishastanton.com. New episodes are released each Monday. You can select subscribe or follow on Apple or Spotify to automatically receive each new episode as it comes out.
If you know someone who you think would enjoy this podcast, please share it with them! I will be back next week to share a little more about my training journey on the road to discovering my truest self.
In the meantime, if you want to know more about my coaching program or have questions about life coaching in general, please visit my website at www.trishastanton.com .
Have a great week, let it be easy, and remember, Mindset Matters!
