"The person who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."
— Confucius
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Running – I always loved a little jog. I’ve been getting more ‘serious’ over the last couple of years, and already it’s taught me so much about all of life.
I’ve also talked to many ultra runners about their craft – most specifically the lessons and the practices to deal with their runaway minds.
While running can be a blissful meditation and anchor into the present moment, it – like life – will inevitably get hard. Hard things mean our minds start to squeak, and it’s precisely here that we can learn so much.
Here’s a few things for making your [insert hard thing] simpler, easier –
1. Slow Down
Don’t rush.
My tutor at college was old. Well, she felt old to a cocky 25-year-old. Yet my respect was checked when, climbing a mountain with us, she, like the proverbial turtle, set a steady pace but never stopped. Us young bucks would sprint ahead and yet have to take a break, sprint and break, sprint and break – and quickly we broke.
She, on the other hand, was unstoppable. Soon we were left in her wake. Not rushing means you can left foot, right foot forever.
And steady over the long haul works in so many ways.
“Hurry is the enemy of love” used to take pride of place on our fridge, for good reason.
Rushing and hurrying drains energy quickly; you become more reactive, less insightful and mindful. You lose perspective, you have less options. What’s worse, the more you rush, the more you lose your sense of humour and connection with life.
Haste means you forget what’s truly important.
So take it steady – even when you’re sprinting.
2. Do One Thing At A Time
Give yourself totally to the one thing that you’ve chosen to do. It’s all you actually can do. Left foot, right foot it. One step and then the next.
But when the to-do list or the scale of what you’re facing is huge – that weighs heavy, and so you start to hurry but also start to try and juggle as you run.
Just run, or juggle. Do the one thing. Tick that off, move to the next thing.
So much easier – so much more effective since you’re giving all your energy to one thing – and so much more enjoyable.
Which leads nicely to …
3. Don’t Get Ahead Of Yourself
Once I took an outdoor risk management course. (Wait, it gets better!)
The thing that stuck in my head was that by far the biggest proportion of accidents happen on the way home.
Why?
Because people’s heads are at home, so they don’t see the obstacles just under their feet.
They start to rush to get ‘there’ quicker, trying to cut corners and ending up making a mess, hurting themselves and someone else.
My musician friend tells me it’s the same with performers – if you’re not mindful, the last page is where you mess up. You’re finished, you’re home free… except you’re not.
Or!
And this is so common when you can see where home is, say deep in the valley below...
People see how far they have to go and thus lose hope and energy and all of that. “It’s too far!”
We do that in life.
We get so focused on how far we’ve got to go we get overwhelmed; we get dispirited. We lose sight of where we are. Messy, and draining, and stressful.
Instead –
Be in your body. Stay where your feet are. Left foot, right foot it. That’s all you have to do. With practice you’ll find that’s all you can do.
Alrighty?
Implement some of that.
Slow down. While you may believe you can’t stop because there’s so much to do, you don’t have to go a thousand miles an hour. That’s unsustainable.
Take it steady and have more energy and more smiles.
Do the one thing wholeheartedly, mindfully, awake and alert as you can.
That is so much more enjoyable, and the potential for burnout and resentment and all the rest minimises enormously.
Stay where your feet are.
Have a goal and a direction, but don’t focus on it. Have a plan, a to-do list, but be present in the current step.
Create a process, but involve yourself in it – not the product, the end result.
This way you can make hard things doable. Whether that’s a monster adventure you’ve chosen for yourself or getting through something that’s been thrust upon you.
Doesn’t matter. Break it down, and you may find the whole thing – even when you’re working hard – mightily enjoyable.
Give it a go, and let me know what you find. I’d love to hear!
Go well,
Arjuna
PS.
Come and learn Ascension. It’s one of the best mind-whispering tools out there for learning to calm your mind and stay out of the unchangeable past and an unpredictable future.
Easy, fun, powerfully transformative. It’s the one thing I’ve been doing for the last every single day for the last 22 years for a very good reason. It helps in all ways.
Next course is 4-6 July (starts 7pm Friday).
Always free to repeat, get in touch if you want details!