LEARNING HOW TO RUN BY MORGAN TRACEY

When we’re young we learn how to play soccer and basketball and so on. But no one ever really teaches us how to run. You learn to walk and then suddenly you’re expected to run. 

Growing up I was the kid in middle school who was alway ‘sick’ the day of the dreaded timed mile. In elementary school I ran around with no VOJ, no reason to care. But then came middle school where everything changed, suddenly my VOJ was screaming at everything little thing I did. From then on my VOJ was constantly lingering, reminding me that I didn’t know how to run and if I tried I’d look like a fool. 

But this spring, after being trapped inside my childhood bedroom for weeks on end, I decided to teach myself how to run. Each morning, for 30 days, I would wake up and run a mile around my neighborhood. 

Some days were harder than others but I had changed my mindset from middle school, now I was silencing my VOJ. 

Again and again I would get up and run, the first week or so just a mile, it was hard enough. But by week 3 I was experimenting with 2 or even 3 miles. Slowly, I was learning how to run. By the end of the month I was invested. I was running more and more and I was starting to actually enjoy it. 

By running over and over again I had silenced my VOJ which helped me to focus on the run instead of what everyone around me was thinking. 

Not only did silencing my VOJ allow me to learn to run but it helped me create more time to simply think. Running became my time for myself, time where I could take in my surroundings with no distractions. 

After 22 years I was finally able to silence my VOJ and just run.