A Positive Attitude

Sitting watching sport on TV is not the best way to open an article for a health conscious website, however it is a rather apt one. Not for the watching but for what is being viewed. 

Regardless of whatever sport is presented on your screen you will see a person or team who is quietly confident of their abilities and the ultimate outcome of the soon to be ensuing competition.

Some will be smiling, some silently considering the coming action and some deep in focus completely oblivious to the surrounding world. But none of them, no matter what they are about to do, are even for one second contemplating losing or not doing their best. A slightly melodramatic example of this would be the sports “entertainment” of the WWE. If you tune in you will no doubt see many athletes but one in particular wears his positive attitude as a badge of honour by not only looking powerful and confident but constantly proclaiming as his catchphrase “I’m awesome!” and then continuing to do so regardless of a win or loss. Such self confidence and positive attitude, albeit a little staged, is still something we should all at least strive to in some degree.

Now I’m not saying that we should all go around proclaiming our own awesomeness at every moment of the day but firstly recognising that you are is a fantastic first step!

Don’t believe me? Well look at it this way, you are the most powerful person in your own universe. You hold the ability to change yourself, to push yourself and to keep yourself going. Others can help you and support you but at the end of the day it is you who chooses.

Not enough? Well you are amazing in what you can and DO do.

As a runner on average everyone has as pace of about 90 strides per minute. So in an hour that’s about 5000 strides PER FOOT! If you use an average of between 100 and 150lbs for a person, and knowing that when you run and average of 2-3 times your weight is turned into pressure you can see that you take between 300 and 450lbs of pressure each footfall! That means in that hours run your body takes between 1,500,000lbs and 2,250,000 lbs of pressure per foot! This is the equivalent of 222 elephants. So yes you are awesome!

As I said at the beginning, no-one ever goes out planning to fail or not to do their best. It’s our positivity, self belief and confidence that keeps us going. Which is why staying positive is also key. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first race or your millionth, if it’s 5k or 100 miles, staying positive will only help you achieve your goals and keep you going. There are so many people who even use running as the reason to become positive. I know myself that any bad mood can be cured with a decent run and a great way to get things out my system.

So the question now is really what can I achieve? Every time you step out the door in your trainers a strong outlook will help you so much. If you’re race training, PB focussed or just prepping for a charity run you know what you have to do as part of your plan. Every step is one closer to your goal and feeling even better from pushing that little bit more, and what has got you there and kept you going? The positive attitude from start to finish.

The most beautiful thing about this is that being positive is completely non-exclusive. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. What you’re doing it for or even why. At the end of the day being positive can only help and support you and those around you so what is there to lose by doing it? I’m positive that it’s worth a try.

by Matt Puddy (U&R Twitter follower and well all round positive chap)