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 through the many ups and downs of life during 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.
Hello! I’m excited to be back from my longer than intended hiatus from the podcast world! What was intended to be a short, two week break from my schedule of creating new episodes somehow turned into a solid two months away! Yikes!
During that time I had the opportunity to travel a bit with my husband, visit loved ones, complete some house projects, take our granddaughter and her family to the beach, and to host my brother and his family here in San Antonio during their spring break. It has been a whirlwind, and because I am still in my first full year of not teaching in a classroom, I continue to be amazed, grateful and constantly excited to have so much flexibility in my schedule. As much as I enjoyed all of those things and wouldn’t trade them for the world, I’m ready to get the ball rolling again with the podcast and I’m so glad you’re joining me! Today let’s take a moment to consider the idea of taking notice of the behind the scenes benefits of past accomplishments and the opportunity to use them to propel you toward your next version of yourself, whatever that might be.
Have you ever had a moment where you suddenly noticed just how much you’ve changed? I had one of those moments recently and it stopped me in my tracks.
One morning, as I was getting ready for a run, I caught a glimpse of my legs in the mirror. At first, I didn’t think much of it—until I really looked. Where there had once been soft, straight lines, I now saw strength. Definition. Years of effort had quietly reshaped me, and I hadn't even realized it was happening.
It made me think: How often do we overlook our own progress?
When I first started running, I wasn’t strong. I wasn’t confident. I didn’t see myself as an athlete. I was just someone putting one foot in front of the other, hoping I could make it to the next mile. I didn’t feel like I was changing. I didn’t feel like I was becoming anything different.
But I was.
Just like my legs were transforming mile by mile, my mind was changing too. Without even realizing it, I had been building resilience. Endurance. Mental toughness. And that shift happened not because I woke up one day and decided I was suddenly capable, but because I kept showing up. I kept moving forward, even when I wasn’t sure it was making a difference.
Later as I became more experienced, I began setting time goals for racing. My focus was entirely on measurable performance goals.
I had time and distance goals for every run.
Those were easy to measure, making results easy to evaluate.
Did I meet the goal?
What worked? What didn’t work? What can I adjust for next time?
I’m thankful for the years I spent chasing times because the process of setting goals, mapping progress and evaluating results taught me so much about how to create change in any area of my life.
It taught me to give everything each day while also being patient for the ultimate outcome I was striving for.
It taught me to put my focus and effort on what I could control and not worry so much about the things that were outside of my control.
It taught me that daily perseverance was essential for reaching my goals.
The greatest gift in all of this was that I was able to apply much of what I learned about how to set and reach goals in running to my actual real life.
On this particular day, as I paused to notice something that I had not seen before, I thought about how all this time, as I had been working toward my measurable goals, other things were happening as well. There was a physical change taking place inside my body that I wasn’t even aware of. A change that I could not yet see. Change that would not be noticeable for a long time. I marveled at how on this particular day I was suddenly able to witness the change that had been taking place slowly, undetected and unseen until this day.
I was thinking about this recently and how it relates to creating change and success in regular everyday life. Working toward success (use whatever your personal definition of success is here) can feel hard, boring and slow. We sometimes feel out of our element as we pursue something new.
After the initial excitement wears off, the monotony of discipline, showing up each day and putting in the work required often feels boring. We may wonder, what is the purpose anyway? When we find ourselves asking this question, it is likely we are in the messy middle of change. The river of misery. It’s the place between where you started and where you want to be. The newness and excitement of setting your goal or beginning something new will wear off long before the goal is attained. This is where discipline, perseverance and the commitment to show up to do the hard, boring thing each day become essential to reaching your ultimate goal.
We all have that ‘messy middle’—the part of the journey where growth is happening, but it’s invisible. Where change feels slow, almost nonexistent. Maybe you’re there now. Maybe you’re working toward something, but all you see are the same struggles, the same self-doubt, the same reasons to quit.
But here’s the truth: Just because you can’t see the transformation doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Progress isn’t always obvious. Strength isn’t always visible. But it’s being built, step by step, mile by mile.
If you’re doubting your ability to reach a goal, look back. Find proof in your own story. Think of a time when you accomplished something you once thought was impossible. Maybe it was a physical goal. Maybe it was a professional goal. Maybe it was navigating a difficult season in life. Maybe it was simply continuing forward when everything in you wanted to stop.
You’ve done hard things before. That is your proof that you can do hard things again.
What does looking back have to do with showing up for the daily boring, hard steps? I’m so glad you asked. Our brains are constantly scanning for evidence to support our thoughts. As evidence is located (true or not) the thought becomes reinforced. Thoughts that we think repeatedly become our beliefs.
Left to its own devices, your brain will do everything possible to conserve energy and keep you safe from discomfort. In other words, an unmanaged mind will look for the easy way out. Not because you are lazy, rather because your unmanaged mind equates ease and comfort with safety. An unmanaged mind believes that you can’t get hurt if you don’t take a chance. The unmanaged mind will always encourage you to take the easy way out without stopping to consider the missed opportunities that result. The unmanaged mind does NOT want to show up for the daily boring disciplines that take you from where you are to where you want to be. The unmanaged mind will tell you this is a sign to stop. The unmanaged mind will convince you that if you don’t feel motivated, you need to wait until your motivation comes back to take action.
Again, what does this have to do with looking back? Everything! Find proof in your own story. We all have examples of things we have accomplished in our lives. It might be as simple as “I hated school as a child, but I managed to make it through 13 years of school to get my high school diploma.” If that doesn’t seem significant enough, then you were either someone who really liked school or you haven’t taken the time to think about all of the boring, monotonous steps required to make it from kindergarten through high school graduation. The getting up early to get to school on time, the homework, tests, sitting indoors for longer than what is optimal for the human mind and body. Getting along with other humans, dress codes…. I could go on, but you get the idea.
You might be thinking, well these are just basic expectations of living in society. My response would be, yes, they are. And it seems simplistic because we accept them as such. But if you have spent time in a kindergarten classroom, you already know that we are not born understanding these expectations. We have to learn them and some little ones take longer to learn them than others. Some push back harder, but most eventually assimilate to the expectations and go on to succeed well enough to eventually, 13 years later, walk the stage to get their high school diplomas.
Have you ever spent time with a high school senior, especially the spring of their senior year? Senioritis is a REAL thing. All the expectations they have been meeting up until now suddenly seem impossible.
Getting up in the morning? Forget it!
Homework-why bother?
And I’m not even talking about the experience of my own kids when they were seniors. I’m thinking of myself! I vividly remember the struggle of this that I myself had a full 36 years later! And yet, I did manage to show up, meet the requirements well enough to secure the diploma and move on to the next part of my life.
Looking back on the hard and boring parts of getting through high school helped me to take the necessary steps through college and the requirements to succeed in college provided the bridge to my first teaching job. Now, do I look all the way back to my high school graduation 36 years ago to provide my brain evidence of success today? No, I have more recent accomplishments to draw from. And unless you are a recent high school graduate, so do you.
The reason I use that as an example here is that when first presented with the idea that you have past accomplishments to draw strength from, I have seen the minds of new clients immediately go to work wanting to discount their recent accomplishments as not enough. This is nothing more than evidence of an unmanaged mind. And that is perfectly fine. An unmanaged mind can be retrained. You can learn to use your past FOR you rather than against you. And you can begin by bringing to mind your most recent or a favorite personal accomplishment.
What past success can you use as proof today?
It doesn’t need to be something grand.
It does need to be tangible.
What were the obvious benefits of the accomplishment you are thinking of? These are likely tied to the reason you pursued this accomplishment to begin with.
Now let's dig a little deeper. Take some time to consider the less obvious positive outcomes of that accomplishment?
If you are unaccustomed to intentionally directing your thoughts, your brain is probably telling you right now that your accomplishment is not enough for this exercise and that you can skip this part.
Don’t skip this part!
This is where you need to be the director of your thoughts.
Decide to have the discipline to follow through with this simple exercise no matter how uncomfortable it is for you to think about your accomplishments.
No matter who you are or where you are in your life, you have experienced whatever level of success that has been required to get to where you are right now.
Want to go farther?
Great! Use your past success to fuel your actions for your next success. Use your past accomplishments as evidence that you can do this next thing, whatever that may be.
For each accomplishment you have created thus far there has been behind the scenes work going on, developing a stronger version of you. But if you don’t see, it is like an untapped, dormant super power.
If you’re doubting your ability to reach a goal, look back.
Find proof in your own story.
You’ve done hard things before. That is your proof that you can do hard things again.
That moment when I recognized the physical change that had been going on in my legs, although small, was significant enough that I remember it vividly. That simple recognition of change shifted the way I thought about my dedication to my daily runs. I recognized for the first time that beyond the tangible goals, this hobby was changing the physical makeup of my body.
The practice of showing up daily for years in the pursuit of my goals has created a new level of health and strength for me. It was the moment of seeing it that allowed me to harness the power of what was already there. It was recognizing the change that had taken place that created change in how I viewed what I could do in other areas of my life.
If it worked for me, are you willing to consider that it might work for you as well?
What past success can you use as your proof today?
What version of yourself have you already built, even when you weren’t aware of it?
Whatever it is, hold onto that. Let it propel you forward. The strength you seek isn’t in the future—it’s already within you, waiting to be recognized.
Now, take the next step.
That’s all I have for you today, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Running to Myself. 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 subscribe 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 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 one-on-one coaching or life coaching in general, please visit my website at www.trishastanton.com or my Facebook Group The Simple Truth Coaching. I would love to hear from you!
Have a great week and remember, Mindset Matters!
