Slow Start
Dear Reader,
The other morning I wasn't feeling full of energy. It was a busy time and I've been working hard. I really didn't have the energy to go out for my morning run, and I very nearly didn't go.
But then I was thinking, I always feel better after the run, even if I have low energy. It's as though it helps me to build the energy. So I said to myself, let's just take this one step at a time.
First of all, get out of bed and come down the 16 floors to ground level. Because there, when you do your morning stretches, you'll hear the little birds chirping and it's a beautiful summer's day. Let's just get to that first stretch. So that's what I did.
Once I was there I said to myself, okay, now just get yourself down to the riverbank and go stretch on the riverbank and think of the river and the water and what you're going to see and how beautiful that's going to be. So that was the second step. And so by now I had two stretches in. I was feeling the fresh air and I could start my run.
It wasn't a particularly good run. I didn't make a great time. But by the time I came back I felt so much more invigorated, so much more full of energy and my day was so much better.
I use the same technique sometimes when I look at my to-do list and there's something big on my to-do list - something that feels overwhelming and it feels like I don't have the energy to do it. All I do then is I say to myself, let's just do the first step, the first small thing to get us going.
I really would recommend this for yourself as well. When you feel overwhelmed, or maybe you haven't got the energy to cope with something, just think of doing the first part.
Just have a slow start, because the joy will follow from having the slow start, building on it, and in the end you come back and you feel refreshed, invigorated and you feel you've accomplished something.
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