I was wrapping up a seven-mile, late afternoon run when I saw my friend Kim stretching by her car. It was cold and the sun was getting ready to set. She mention how hard it was to get out of the house and get going. I knew the feeling. Starting is often the toughest.
A couple days later, I read about the two-minute rule from James Clear.
The Two-Minute Rule states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. The Two-Minute Rule helps counterbalance our tendency to bite off more than we can chew. It also gives you a small way to reinforce your desired identity each day.
A couple of days after that, I heard Joe De Sena on the Rich Roll podcast say:
Just get going. Don't bite off too much. Lie to yourself, and say we're just going to do a little bit today, because a little bit is better than nothing.
Yesterday, I started running a 1.15-mile hill repeat on Sanders Mound at Clinton State Park. When I got there I was cold and didn't want to get out of my car. I told myself to overdress to stay warm and just run 2 repeats. Once I warmed up, I swung by my car and shed a few layers.
I saw my friend Diane out there running a repeat and she told me the record for most known repeats in day was 15. At this point, I broke my repeats into 3 loop sets. I ran for two, then I took the third as a "recovery" lap. Grabbed a snack, my water bottle, and walked up the hills. Those were very bite-sized chunks.
Once I hit nine repeats, I promised myself an upgraded snack at 12. At 12, I said will I should at least tie the record of 15. Once I hit 15, I thought, one more set of three and I can hit 20 miles. I did stop at 18 even though a voice was tempting me to go for 20 repeats.
Start small. It's easier to keep going than to start.
