Are You Conditionally Happy?

Are you conditionally happy with your endurance running or walking?

Do you put conditions on whether you will be happy with training sessions or races?

For example,

• Do you get upset with a race when you do not beat your personal record (PR) or personal best?
• Do you let an injury that sidelines you or slows you down determine your happiness?
• Do you let another runner’s or walker’s unhappiness drag you down during a training session?

I have done all of this, and I’m here to tell you:

You have to take control of your happiness.

You MUST choose to be unconditionally happy with your endurance running or walking.

The Law of Attraction tells us that we are dooming ourselves otherwise — to worsening performance, more injuries, and more unhappiness.

And, as Dennis Prager, the author of the book Happiness Is a Serious Problem, likes to say, you have an OBLIGATION to others to be happy.

You can choose to be unconditionally happy
with your endurance running or walking.

I’m not saying that this is easy, but I am saying that it is worth it.

And there are techniques that you can use to take you closer to unconditional happiness with your endurance running or walking.

One of them is finding opportunities everywhere for gratitude:

• When you’re training
• When you’re racing
• When you’re sidelined by injury
• When you’re recovering from injury

How can you become better
at being unconditionally happy?

It’s easy to become better at being unconditionally happy.

Just practice being grateful!

I wrote in my book Mental Tricks for Endurance Runners and Walkers about the value of keeping a gratitude diary.

Except when I am traveling so lightly that I leave it at home, I fill two pages in my gratitude diary every day.

As I write this article now, I have been doing this daily for more than a year. And it has made a world of difference in my appreciation for everything in my life.

Even if you do not want to keep a general diary about all aspects of your life, I strongly encourage you to keep a gratitude diary at least about your endurance running or walking.

Of course, there are other techniques to bring us back to happiness. And I would love to hear what yours are.

Please leave a comment below about what YOU do to stay unconditionally happy with your endurance training and racing. I would love to know, and I’m sure that other readers could benefit from your experience, too.

Share your results, so that we can all encounter happier people out on the road or trail!

Please tell me, too, what else you would like to know about applying gratitude to your racing and training. I have a project in mind, but I want to hear from YOU!