How relaxing can make you a better runner/golfer/business person…

Posted In: ChiRunning February 20th, 2015 divider No Comments »

We’re usually bombarded that working harder is going to solve all of our issues. And trust me, it’s not the answer for everything as I have worked on countless projects that went nowhere. Working harder in those cases just gets you to dig a deeper hole and I’m not sure that’s useful for anyone except maybe to teach you a lesson!

I’m a big believer in working hard and that good work gets rewards but it’s also about working smarter. That is basically the essence of ChiRunning and one that makes me come back. A lot of people try to sprint their long distances only to hit the wall a few kilometres in or worse yet, get injured in training.

I’ve actually been living my advice recently, especially in business dealings. I try to be smart about who I partner with but I also don’t try to force things where they don’t happen organically. It’s bitten me in the behind before and no thank you.

This lesson has also helped me a lot on the golf course. After working with some incredible coaches, I’m learning to apply my Chi and let the club do the work. My lightbulb moment on the links was when I was trying to kill the ball on a regular basis only to make it go further in the woods. How useful is that?

Now I just try to get my body (and thus the club) in the right place at the right time to make meaningful impact. Same applies with life.

I’m talking about relaxing when you’re out there running but also relaxing about the running in general. I used to follow very rigid  schedules when it came to training. It got me results but also eroded a lot of the fun in the sport. And that’s no fun!