Sometimes We Just Need A Little Push…

There are always things in life that we say we want to do or think that they would be interesting to try, but how often do we actually go pursue these ideas?

Our minds go:  it would be fun – but I don’t feel like it right now… or… I can do my favourite pastime instead.

Photocred to Thibault Penin: Unsplash.com

Recently, I have encountered scenarios where I am exploring some of these ideas and hobbies that I have always wanted to get to but never got around to doing it.

You would think that something has shifted in my life, internally, or maybe I cannot do my go-to activity. Nope, I am completely the same, but something in my environment changed.

The thing that I have started to do is running. I used to run more when I was playing soccer growing up and in high school cross-country.

I know that it is healthy and that I enjoy it. However, it is hard to get myself to lace up my kicks and get out there – especially after a long hiatus. 

Covid hasn’t helped either as recreational sports, my usual form of exercise, are no longer part of my life, and therefore, my overall fitness has declined.

Recently, I have started running again! The reason being is that my co-op employer began a co-op fitness challenge and divided the interns into the four Harry Potter houses (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff) to compete against each other.

Having accountability to people other than myself was a huge motivator in getting me to lace up those shoes as I didn’t want to let the team down or look bad.

Photocred to Flo Karr: Unsplash.com

This experience has led me to believe that the best way to do some of those activities that you want to do but don’t get around to is a push from an external source. There are probably circumstances specific to different individuals (it wouldn’t help push me if it was my Mom telling me to go for a run), but overall, I think it’s generally a good approach.

Having a trusted external source or motivator, like a team or competition, gives you the necessary push and accountability to make a different decision than you normally would.

Similarly, in 4th-year Business, we have a course dedicated to things we want to learn, however, we must make commitments and track our achievements as the year goes on. While we set the direction, the instructor makes sure that we complete what we said we would.

Would I have spent $500 dollars on a responsible investing course or web-design course on my own? Probably not. Now that it is for school, I’ll do these activities that caught my interest, but it helps that I have a little push.