Happiness First

5 Minute Read

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success."

Albert Schweitzer’s quote says f*#& your goals.

It is a challenge to shift our thinking, and make happiness the goal (not qualifying for Boston). And when we do, success will become the natural byproduct.

Happiness First

It makes sense, doesn’t it? When we genuinely enjoy the work we’re putting into our training, we’re far, far more likely to do more, stay consistent, and keep going.

Hard work is hard. But, when we discover our own unique way to become passionately (and positively) obsessed with our training, we’re set up to be happy with ourselves, happy with our lives, and genuinely enjoy the hard work and effort of what we're doing. This goes for everything in life.

And when these align, we’ll never need to quit. We can stay consistent and be present in our training, making burnout far less likely to occur. This is key to Fueling Your Passion, and of course, sets us up well for better long-term results as a result.

The Chicken & Egg

Happiness leads to success leads to happiness. The cycle here is relative, and applies to all levels of running.

The Initial Key (at all costs) is to find some way to strike some consistency with your training. Finding something small to enjoy - music, the challenge, the community, buying a fresh outfit, etc. Start small, find something to enjoy. If you’re reading this, you probably have this box checked.

Relative Progress - after some consistency, you will start to see that some runs feel great. And this is a relative concept at all levels. Consistency in daily running will make daily running easier. Consistency with ultra training will inevitably lead to some days just feeling great. This feeling is important. 

Build Momentum: Enjoy the run, enjoy the progress, and you’ll naturally want to run more. This increased enthusiasm helps you push through tough workouts and recover more effectively. Remember it started with consistency.

Set Bigger, Long-Term Goals: Your consistent enjoyment will lead to success long term. When you love the process, you can set long term goals, and nail it.

Practical Steps to Manufacture Happiness

To make happiness the foundation of your success, try getting creative:

Build a Routine: Human beings LOVE routine. It is in our brain. Coffee, run, and a recovery meal - a thing of beauty.

Use Running as a Break: Most of us have jobs (sad). Running can be a great moment to do something for ourselves - listen to music, and just get lost in the run.

Unique Goals: If you’re training for something, don’t be afraid to set strange/non-running goals along the way (“I'll try a new long run route every weekend.”)

Final Thoughts

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success."

We need to find just enough happiness in our running, to enable some consistency. When we’re consistent, running becomes easier. When it gets easier, we’re happy and can do it for life. Success, then, becomes inevitable.

Happiness leads to consistency, and consistency allows us to build a routine we love. With consistency, we build passion.