Hear me out on this one. I’ll start with the bottom line. People with a dedicated fitness lifestyle, like runners, are more inclined to be disciplined and have a better ability to multi task. I believe the reason for that is the fact that in order to be truly dedicated to something, you have to have a plan and in that plan you carefully compartmentalize all aspects of your life in order to make sure you have all of the important parts followed through. If you have a passion for something, you will figure out how to build everything else around it.
Now, take this attitude and apply it to an office job. Many times we will be required to multi task, addressing many issues by email, phone, in person all at the same time while having our wits still about us. As a dedicated runner, I can tell you that my fitness planning helps me a lot with my office job. As a matter of fact, it’s way easier to perform at the office when you are already in the mind set of combining multiple variables to your lifestyle. Running alone gets complicated. Long run, tempo run, intervals, hill work, easy run, etc. And then there’s the nutritional component, strength training, foam rolling, stretching, physical therapy, cross training, finding proper workout gear and gadgets. I can go on!
And let’s not forget the health aspect of it. Many office workers lead an unhealthy lifestyle complete with no exercise, junk food, too much coffee and sugary treats to get them through the day followed by too much alcohol to help them distress afterwards. All this leads to sick days, chronic health issues, doctor’s visits and loss of productivity. Compare that to fitness minded people. We rely on our bodies to perform and therefore we will not eat junk food, over do it with sugar or alcohol (maybe coffee… a little) because we wouldn’t want anything to sabotage our training. Also, running for example has been proven to be an excellent stress reliever and a healthy outlet for negative energy, sparing your body all the unfortunate health issues that stress causes. This results in much healthier office workers who don’t have chronic conditions, make constant doctor’s visits or take sick days and therefore become more productive.
If you are still not inspired enough to take up a fitness lifestyle, please consider the alternative. It’s just a downward spiral with never ending health issues, too much stress with no natural or positive outlet and therefore not an enjoyable life. And if you are a fellow runner, hi there! Let me encourage you to keep on going. It can be a challenge sometimes to hold it all together and it can be tempting to give up when it becomes difficult to overcome all the obstacles that are most certainly in your way at one point or another. But don’t fret, you are way ahead of many others. Keep it up and know that you are doing an amazing job keeping yourself healthy, physically and mentally.
On a personal note, I’d like to say that I recently came across a book that didn’t just inspire me but it changed my whole perspective. It’s called “From Last to First” by Charlie Spedding who won the London marathon and later became an Olympic bronze medalist. This book was recommended by the New York Road Runners during one of their forums and I decided to give a go. I didn’t just read it, I inhaled it and then had to go back read it again. For any avid runner this will be such a great read. It was interesting, very personal, thought provoking, funny, perceptive and relatable. I strongly recommend it.