What’s the one thing in your life that no boss, no bank, and no relationship breakup can take from you?
Your health, fitness, and general wellness.
I’m an introvert and a bit of a control freak, so a world this volatile and chaotic is basically my personal nightmare. Some years feel like a slow slide where money gets weird, relationships get heavy, and work goes sideways (usually all at once).
Then you wake up and realize most of your life is being run by stuff you don’t actually control, which is the part that nobody talks about. You can do everything right and still get burned.
But running doesn’t care about any of that. It’s the one thing I can walk out my front door to do, and no job, economy, government, or human can get in my way. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure story… and it’s free.
I HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER IT
- The government can’t take it away (Covid taught me this, so now I’ve got simple weights at home, plus stairs, a sidewalk, and a bike)
- Money comes and goes unless you were born with a silver spoon
- Jobs are the same, you can’t control your boss or your industry or the economy
- And you can’t force another person to love you (Yes, even sick kids don’t act like they love you when they are sick and angry)
Running is the exact opposite. It asks nobody for permission.
YOU GET THE BENEFITS THAT SAME DAY
Start a run angry or tired or flat, and you almost never end it feeling the same way. I’m at least 10% better by the end of all runs, but usually closer to 50-80%.
Lifting weights in the gym is the same deal. You get the pump, and you can actually see in the mirror what you’ll look like in a few months if you keep showing up.
Most things in this world make you wait. Relationships take months, if not years; a career takes 2-5 years, and money takes decades.
A run takes one morning. That fast feedback loop is something almost nothing else in adult life gives you.
IT BENDS TO FIT YOUR LIFE, AND YOUR LIFE GETS BETTER BECAUSE OF IT
This is the part I love because running flows out into everything. Sleep gets better, my mood is higher, and food tastes like you earned it. (2 things with that: 1- I’m not saying you should “earn calories”, but yeah, when you’re hungry after a run, everything tastes dope. 2- Also not saying it pays your bills or fixes a bad relationship, and we aren’t running from our problems here!)
But the body underneath your life gets a small upgrade, and everything rides that wave. Rising tide, all ships, all that.
And it flows the other way too.
Whatever life throws, you can shape running around it, usually without asking anyone.
- Get hurt? Work the parts of your body that are still healthy.
- Get sick? Do the bare minimum to feel okay, prep some food, and plan your training for when you’re back.
- Didn’t sleep? Go for an easy 5k (3-mile) jog, a walk, the stairs, some light bodyweight stuff. You’ll wake right up, no caffeine necessary. Do that twice in a day, and you can reach bedtime feeling halfway decent instead of leaning on your fourth coffee.
Nothing else in this adulting life we live works that way. Most of what we do is reacting to other people’s (government/economy/corporations) choices and wait on other people’s clocks.
Other humans are the one variable I’ll never solve for, and I’ve made peace with maybe 60% of that… not sure if I’ll ever get to 100%.
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