Stay On The Treadmill: The Value of Persistance | The Odyssey Online
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Stay On The Treadmill: The Value of Persistance

The first step is the hardest.

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Stay On The Treadmill: The Value of Persistance
greatist

Pick a setting and stick with it. Messing with the speed and incline isn't going to save you. The best thing to do is to just lose yourself on the machine. Put some good music on your phone and power through tracks. Let the world shrink down to the monitor in front of you.

The first step is the hardest.

The longest mile is the one you walk on your return to the church of gains. Now that you find yourself back in it's warm embrace the healing can begin. And by healing I mean agony. Almost like a shot at the doctors office, or bubblegum flavored medicine, but all over your body. Sometimes the only reason to keep going is because you know if you stop it will just get harder to get back on. You know what's waiting for you. It's unpleasant to say the least and it doesn't help that it wont get easier unless you do it everyday. There is no short cut for this. No one can give you five tips on how to absolutely dominate the treadmill. The key to gaining stamina is not written in some forgotten tome. The technique is pretty simple when you get right down to it. You run till you're sweating. You run till your lungs hurt. You run till you physically feel like a struck match.

For some people the treadmill offers one of the hardest lesson life has to teach. It baffles perfectionists, it scares individuals with enough talent to breeze through, and it sets up a gate that stops just anybody from being able to achieve the rewards it can offer. The longer you work the better you will get. There is no substitute for effort. On the treadmill you either make headway or you aren't on the treadmill. The only opponent you face is your body and your mind. The results wont be fast either. Unless by some random chance you're apart of the minuscule percent of the population that has hyper regenerative abilities. If so then hats off to you. Charles Xavier has your room ready. Logan wants to talk shop about bullet wounds. The rest of us will be on the treadmill every week, some of us every day. We plan on turning ourselves into bonfires. Self immolating organisms we become Phoenixes when our feet hit the treadmill. Every week we die and are reborn from our own ashes a little stronger than the last time.

At least it feels like it the day after. I'm doing the most right now. I understand. The treadmill is not Mecca. The treadmill is not Valhalla. The treadmill is not divine. The treadmill is just a microcosm. One of the purest examples of a real life principle. If you put the time in on the treadmill, and you will know if you put the time in, you will see the results.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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