Wanting vs. Wanting

I ran 5-miles yesterday after not having run since sometime in January. It took me 48:15, and I was feeling pretty good about that. I decided I'm going to run in the St. Patty's day 5-mile run, and I wanted to surprise Joe and not tell him until that day. I wasn't going to tell him because I thought if I wanted to back out at the last minute then I wouldn't be disappointing anyone.

I guess I'm ruining it though because Joe subscribes to my blog.

I decided I should take my own advice and set myself up to be encouraged to do things, and not give myself an easy way out. I know I want myself to run the race....but I'm not really sure I want to.

I see this concept very often in wellness----people really want themselves to make healthy choices, but when the moment arises they don't want to. I think having a variety of strategies is good (i.e. do it not wanting to, etc), but sometimes you can take away some of the decision-making responsibility by telling other people or making committments. If you don't want to let someone else down, you are more likely to make the decision you want for yourself.

That's why wellness coaching works---I come back and check in to see if you held up your end of the deal. If you didn't, I help you re-plan. I want you to be successful at making healthy decisions, and ultimately I want you to want to. But in the beginning, if you don't want to in the moment....I think its perfectly ok to use outside motivation to hold yourself accountable. It may be cheating, but like I've said before, cheating is ok sometimes.