You Always Have Enough For the Next Step

South Mountain Reservation, South Orange NJ

During my training my plan has been to slowly increase my mileage each month. Having successfully pushed myself to 5 miles I set the goal for 7 miles this weekend. In planning out my run I had to be sure to take in consideration the level of difficulty and technical navigation I would have to contend with on the trail. Since I wanted to challenge myself a little more I purposely charted the more difficult parts of the trail for the first 3 miles. When I began my run the first 3 miles were indeed as difficult as I expected. As every runner knows, sometimes it takes time for your body to adjust to the strain you are putting on it when you’re running. The bigger challenge, though, is always the mental one. If not careful your mind can quit on you before your body does. So in order to keep going all I kept saying to myself was not to think about the 7 miles but to focus solely on the next step.

You Always Have Enough for the Next Step

Focusing on just that next step was critical. I knew that I was pushing beyond my 5 mile training runs for the first time in over a year. Focusing on everything I had to do over 7 miles during each mile would have been akin to mentally running a 49 mile race. In addition, there was no way for me to predict what my physical condition would be and if I had enough to finish the 7th mile. The only thing I knew was my condition in that moment of the run and what I knew was I had enough for the next step.

When we are able to focus on the next step you will find you will always have enough energy to accomplish it. The next step is the simple piece in the larger complex puzzle. Having a laser like focus on the step also allows you to see what is directly in front of you whereas thinking too far ahead can “trip” you up. (This is something trail runners know all too well and we often pay for it in the form of scraped hands, knees, shins and stubbed toes.) Nevertheless, focusing on the next keeps us refreshed and confident because we know it is something we can do.

When we focus solely on the next step we are always in the place we are supposed to be rather than the place we think we should be.

I think society teaches us to over estimate the importance of focusing on our big goal or vision and underestimate the small things we need to do along the way to accomplish it. Do not get me wrong. Our goals, especially the BIG ones, are the motivating factors to almost everything we accomplish. Having a big goal or vision is beyond important but it can be both inspiring and deflating at the same time. That is because we make no difference in prioritizing what we have to do on day 1 with what we are thinking of doing on day 100. Ultimately, when we constantly exert all of our mental energy visualizing everything we have to do to accomplish our big goal we burnout. In fact it is well known that mental exhaustion can have significant negative psychological and physical effects. It is also why we always feel deflated because the consequence of constantly thinking about our big goal is perceiving that we should be further along than we are. The focus on the next step releases us from that pressure. When we focus solely on the next step we are always in the place we are supposed to be rather than the place we think we should be. So when your mind goes further ahead of you just simply bring yourself back to the present. Focus on that you have energy for, the one thing. The next step.

In terms of my run I ended up getting into a good rhythm, went beyond my goal of 7 miles and finished with 8. It just goes to show when you focus on that next step, you might do more than accomplish your goal, you might surpass it.