At some point, effort stops feeling empowering. You try harder.You push more.You motivate yourself again. But instead of progress, you feel resistance. And that’s when frustration quietly replaces hope. When Effort Turns Into Pressure Most people are taught one rule: If something isn’t working, try harder. That rule works — until it doesn’t. Because effort has a limit.And once you cross…

Mean it.

This is one of my favorite songs of all of the ever. Mostly because I love the band, but today on my run I noticed that its message fits right in with something I've been thinking about... and that running is a great metaphor for the pursuit of change, particularly because I'm very mediocre at it ;)

This blog is about empowering positive lifestyle/habits. The thing is, once you make time and room and energy to do the things you want to do... well, sometimes it's not easy to actually do them. Some goals are bigger than a free afternoon and more complicated than steps 1 through 3.  

But that isn't a good reason to try only sometimes or just enough. I mean, what's the point in having the balls and freedom to make choices if you're not fully invested, right? 

You can't wait for good things to happen to you-- you have to make them happen for yourself. It's not very romantic, and I wallow about that as much as the next person, but at the end of the day, hard work is what the best things are made of. 

So when I truck/heave/tumble up and down the muggy Wisconsin swamp land and my legs hurt and I'm gasping for breath and watching the stupid college girls sprint by in their sports bras and abs and I think I need to stop... I don't.

I tell myself, "Just because it's hard doesn't mean you can't do it" and I finish my course. (Another good mantra, for health habits anyway, is, "This is making my ass look awesome.")

Focus on your progress towards the goal, not the pains it takes to get there, and push yourself. Yes, the journey is part of the experience, but you can't lose sight of your motivation or you're just running in circles, huffing and puffing, and hoping to God you don't pee your absurdly tight stretchy pants.