How to use NLP to motivate yourself to run a marathon

My brother and I recently completed a 20 mile run in the heart of the English countryside at Bramley, between Reading and Basingstoke.

We finished the race well before the time suggested by the required training schedule and we were delighted with the result.

I posted the result on Facebook and shared some photos of me and my brother in our matching running vests and was surprised to see so many people commenting and emailing me about how they want to run longer distances and how they lack motivation. I promised that I would write and share my own motivational strategy.

On a basic level, when I train alone, there are many things I do that keep me motivated at that time, like varying my routes, running to motivating music on my ipod, having a goal (like a 10k, half marathon, or marathon race). ) to work, and how I feel in my own skin enjoying the health benefits of being lean and fit. While running with others and having people to run with is one of the best ways to keep your momentum and stay accountable, it’s not always possible to run with others, so we need to motivate ourselves a lot.

However, this is not what people usually want to hear from me. They want some psychological process, so I’m going to share what I use the most to keep myself motivated and motivated, which involves mental rehearsal and imagination.

For most people, the main reason for rehearsing mentally is to prepare, using your imagination in a way that ensures you will behave, react, and respond to a certain situation in the future. However, I also find that remembering and remembering the mental rehearsal when I’m training or crashing an event, gives me even more stimulation when my legs are screaming for me to stop!

This kind of motivational process, when done vigorously and convincingly, should excite, inspire, and drive you with real energy toward the desired result.

It’s that inspiration and motivation that gets you through the dark and lonely winter mornings and evenings of running alone, on my own stage anyway.

Many people find it difficult to get out of bed early, or run out after a day of work and many times we end up experiencing some conflict, as Aristotle said:

“The appetites are opposed, which happens when a principle of reason and desire are contrary and it is only possible in beings with a sense of time, because while the mind orders us to stop for the future, desire is influenced by what is fair. at hand: a pleasant object that is right at hand is presented as pleasant and good, without condition in both cases, due to lack of foresight of what is further away in time.”

So as you bask in the warm, sleepy comfort, curled up in a bed in the morning with your loved one, it’s that instant pleasure and comfort that can seem irresistible, and instead of looking for an opportunity to get out, run, and get healthy, you fit and free, he finds the prospect of running cold, dark and unpleasant. The long-term end result is not convincing enough compared to the comfort and joy of the moment.

One way that an NLP training by Robert Dilts that I enjoyed several years ago helped me establish a way to overcome these types of conflicts was to use the “as if” framework. Something I’ve written about in great depth here and something I teach in many of my trainings.

The “as if” framework helps us make the long-term results and benefits more compelling and allows us to “experience” what things will be like once we have achieved that result, and overcome the short-term pleasure that comes from not doing it (for example, going out to those first races when you lack initial physical shape and the gains seem minimal).

The goal is for us to create a sense of expectation within ourselves and then we can start to feel driven and motivated.

Our own sense of motivation is often driven by our values; things that are important to us. I mean, anyone who’s thinking about running is doing it because on some level they think it’s important in some way, maybe to lose weight, get in shape, be able to run to catch the bus, play with the kids without pooping. , or even run a great race of some kind and achieve something that you consider important.

To develop your own values, if you’re not sure why you’re considering doing something you want to be more motivated to do, ask yourself what motivates you. What is it that inspires you, drives you, or makes you want to go and do this?

You may want to experience success, however you interpret it. You may want the praise and recognition that comes from doing so. You may be looking for love and acceptance, or you may simply want the satisfaction of setting an outcome and achieving it; In the running example (although it can be applied to most other aspects of life), this could be having a slimmer body, helping a worthy cause by hosting a charity event, being able to score a big goal in the life or just feeling fit in general.

These are all examples of “values” that form the basis of people’s motivation to do something.

So the key is that if we connect our future plans and desired results to these values, those results later become even more compelling and we feel more inspired to strive for them. The simple sentence that Robert Dilts showed us in our training and that I still use today was the following:

_____________ (My goal) will help me better achieve ___________ (My value(s)) because _________ (The connection between them)

There are many ways that our own internal representation of desired outcomes influences us. So when we imagine (based on my example scenario above) that if we go for a run it’s going to be cold, painful, dark, nasty and we talk to ourselves in a grim, defeating way, then it’s just not going to happen, is it?

Think carefully about how you think when considering taking the necessary steps to achieve the desired result. Because it affects your motivation.

When I watch the London Marathon on TV, what makes me want to be there running with those thousands of other people is not just my own personal values ​​and desires as we discussed above… The way TV broadcasts it increases my motivation – They use music that excites me, they use full colours, they show the sights, they give inspiring stories of people who run the race against the odds, the words the runners use, the tone the commentators use and much more all come together to build an amazing condition inside your head that makes you feel incredibly inspired and motivated.

Why not use that for our own benefit too? Inside our own heads? Behave like the TV announcer!

You can do it with this very basic motivational process that I use, which I learned in NLP training so many years ago, and while it’s simple, you can adapt it to really drive you forward:

Step one: Imagine that you have already achieved the desired result. the result that matches your values. Imagine that you get great pleasure and satisfaction from doing this. behaving “as if” it were happening and mentally rehearsing the scenario, being on that scenario performing well and being happy as a result.

See what you see, listen to what you hear and enjoy the wonderful sensations.

Second step: Be the inspirational TV host in your own head now, adjust the scene in any way you can so it really pushes you forward. Add music, sounds of loved ones encouraging and congratulating you, imagine what you will say to yourself, add colors and wonderful things that make this internal representation even more motivating and compelling.

Use uplifting language to encourage yourself, use a tone you would use if you were encouraging anyone else you love. Use whatever you need to make this as moving and inspiring as possible.

Step three: Now start associating those thoughts and feelings with achieving your result and also start thinking about all the actions you need to take to achieve it so that you associate the trip (training) with all those great feelings. make the training as enjoyable as the result!

Imagine all those moments when you go out, cheer yourself up, enjoy the process, etc.

Step four: Do this repeatedly whenever you have some free time and keep it in your mind.

step five: Use the feelings, images and experience of this process whenever you need to. Let it help you get out of bed, let it help you reach for your running shoes, let it help encourage you to run that extra mile and push yourself in a healthy way throughout the journey.

This is looking at the result of course we all need to learn the right behaviors and actions to take to make things easier and healthier for us too. So make sure you get the correct information and training programs if you want to run marathons, for example.

This process here is designed to continually motivate you, and it’s what I use to help me dial in each new marathon event and the training program that goes along with it each year. I hope you (runners in particular) find it useful.