How Running is Like Personal Finance – Part III | brokeGIRLrich
After about two weeks of running, I started to learn the secret lesson that was the strongest tie to personal finance.
It’s all in your mind.
I’m not saying that there are times when my body is actually just done – my lungs can’t handle another second or my legs are too much like lead – but about 80% of the time, my mind beats me before my body does.
I never knew how incredibly lazy I am before I started trying to run. I mean, a 5K at 5.5 mph (which is really not that fast) is about 33 minutes of running. 33 minutes of my entire day. And usually around 5 minutes in, I just don’t want to do it anymore. It’s boring. I hate sweating. What’s the point really?
I am my own greatest enemy.
Saving for the future feels exactly the same. After meeting one goal, I just want to call it a day, when really, the further I can go with each savings goal, the better off I’ll be. Sometimes I think, meh, I can just save twice as much next month to make up for not saving this month and spending it on whatever I want.
To make it worse, things that help in the beginning can make life more difficult later on.
The app I was using to learn to run would count down each goal. When I was struggling to make it to 1 minute 30 or 3 minutes, I would stare at that countdown and push myself to finish.
Then this tactic turned on me, once I was running 20 or 30 minutes, that countdown would psych me out. It would seem like it was far too long. I would start to get tired and realize I had only run 5 or 10 minutes and feel like the whole thing was pointless and stop running. The first time I actually managed to hit those goals was when I stopped looking at the clock and just went for it.
It can be really difficult figuring out what will motivate you and what won’t, especially since something that worked in the beginning may stop working.
When I was paying off debt, I started out incredibly motivated to pay it off, turning over 85-90% of every paycheck I was making and it felt great watching the balance drop noticeably each month, but over time, that was not a sustainable amount to live off of and I started to get depressed because I was never doing anything. I had to recalculate my payments and managed to finish strong by just dropping my debt payments to 50% of my paycheck and actually having some fun with some of my money. However, that was a decision I had to make on my own (I also know those numbers were really high, but I was working a really unusual career path back then that had no living expenses).
The other thing that taught me though was that it’s good to go as hard and as far as you can with your initial burst of motivation before that disappears. I put a solid dent in my debt within the first 9 months of graduating from college.
Whenever a new time goal would pop up on my running training tool, I would try to apply that too. I would think, even if you can’t run 20 minutes yet, the longest you’ve ever run is 8 – so aim for 10 and you can stop and walk for 2 minutes anytime after 10 – but then you still have to finish whatever time is left.
I quickly found that it was way better to push as far as I could, because as unpleasant as those last few minutes of running in that first chunk were, trying to force myself to start running again after walking is, to me anyway, excruciating – even though I know it’s all in my mind!
I think the most frustrating times for me have been when I’ve experienced plateaus or didn’t have a plan. Running just to run or saving just to save really don’t do it for me in terms of motivation. However, when I have a goal and can develop a course of action to get there, I’m much more effective.
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I agree. Motivation is such a huge thing and so difficult to manufacture on your own without a little help!
For me, running is definitely about having an end in sight. When I started running, I didn’t use an app, but I’d say to myself, “I’m going to run from here to the corner.” Then I’d walk a bit. Then “I’m going to run from here to that street light.” And so on. Having a tangible goal, and seeing it get closer always motivates me. Same with my debt. I have to have milestones and markers of progress along the way, otherwise I get totally bummed out.
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I completely agree. Even when I can’t make the goals in the app, I still set some sort of goal. Like if I’m feeling completely beat I think, that’s ok – you just have to make it another 30/20 seconds till the timer is at an even minute.
I’m training myself to not just give up, even when I want to.
Great post! There are so many parallels between physical and financial fitness. What’s interestiing is how easy it is to start something, but how hard it is to maintain. I think its due to all the feedback you get in the beginning (it’s hard not to make progress in the beginning) but as time goes on you put in the same effort – which usually isnt fun – but you arent getting the same results; things begin to slow down. At that point, it requires an almost diabolical “love” for the pain.
I’ll have a post comoing out soon so its fresh in my mind: But to keep pushing thru the difficult times we have to focus on the process, not the outcomes. Processes are scalable and reusable. Outcomes come and go. If we just focus on the outcomes we are going to be dissappointed and quit.
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That’s true, although I think having goals to get us to outcomes can be pretty motivating. Since finishing up the race, I haven’t felt nearly as motivated to run.
Since I really don’t prefer running (even though it was far and away my best sport), I always compare personal finance to tennis instead. You don’t have to win every point to win the match, and you can also never build enough of a lead to completely coast to the end. But in running, tennis, and personal finance, the first battle is in your mind.
Definitely, and the battle is different for everyone at different times too. Running – I still pretty much just hate. But I’ve been swimming forever. The battles I fight in both are so similar but at such different levels, it’s ridiculous, except that at the end of the day, much of both of those battles is in my head.
This is me exactly. My mind always defeats me while I’m working out, especially with running! I’ve never made it past 5 minutes to be honest.. But I also am not very good at it either. As for financially, I used to save my money like crazy, and had ended up with a good amount in my savings. But one time I took money out to pay for a trip, and my money has been dwindling ever since. So I need to get back on track!
Honestly, I can run the farthest when I’m distracted, because my body can totally do 30 minutes now, but my mind is just not having it most of the time. I don’t know what that says about my intensely ADD attention span.
Good idea about running and financial goals. Knock it out fast while you can. For me though It helps to have small goals then I don’t become overwhelmed. If I ran it would be just for a few minutes one day then a few more the next. I walk though but the same applies! Financial can be like that for me one small goal at a time.
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When I used to run, I definitely felt the same way. These days my mind gets in the way of even starting to take up running again let alone carrying on after 10 minutes – and I know that needs to change. As for personal finance, I was heavily motivated to pay off my debt all the way through but now my goals have changed to savings, I do have to dig deep for that motivation sometimes. As others have said, goal setting is important for keeping on track!
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I once had a mountain of debts I struggled to payoff. As you rightly said when I first started I was highly motivated in my mission to eliminate all my debts.
At some point I really wanted to give up especially when I felt most of my hard earned cash was going towards paying off my debts with nothing left to have fun with. Thank God, I never give up. Those times I literally had to run and other times walked to keep up the momentum.
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