Make it easier for yourself. Clear some boulders.
Imagine you're standing at the top of a hill. At the bottom is the thing you want to do regularly. Running, drinking enough water, going to bed at a sensible time, whatever it is. You really want to get to the bottom of the hill, but there's a problem. The way down is just one big field of boulders, and every time you try to run down, you keep hitting huge boulders and eventually you figure getting down the slope is just too hard and you walk back to the top. The thing never gets done.
A lot of people tell themselves to just try harder. Usually because that's what they've been told over and over again by lots and lots of people. Maybe they make themselves an even more rigid plan, or try to back themselves into a corner by doing something like entering a race that's a bit too much for them in the hope that it will force them to run more regularly. More often than not, none of this works, or it works for a little while before it doesn't.
But rather than focusing on trying harder, you would be better off focusing on clearing the boulders enough so that you have a nice smooth trail to run down. And here’s how to approach it.
Identify the boulders
Let's take drinking enough water as an example, because it's small and most people struggle with it (myself included).
Most people set a daily water target, fill a glass up with water in the morning, drink it and then think, "I'll fill it up in a minute, right after I've done this very important thing." But you don't ever get round to filling it up because there's always something more interesting and more important than getting up and walking to the tap. Then it’s the end of the day and you’ve drank a grand total of one glass of water.
In this example, having to refill the glass is a boulder.
And maybe it's not just one boulder. Maybe there are other boulders:
Maybe you don't like the taste of water. Boulder.
Maybe you don't like the temperature of the water, so you avoid it. Another boulder.
You could just try the good old "suck it up" method and tough it out, or you could figure out how to move the boulders off the trail. Often the fixes are quite simple. You could get a bigger bottle of water so you don't have to fill it up as much… or at all. I have a 2-litre bottle, which I recommend. Get some of your favourite squash or cordial so that it tastes nicer. Fill a jug and leave it out so it comes up to room temperature, or get some ice if you like it colder. Fruit or herbal teas infused into hot water are another way to make something quite boring more interesting.
That's a lot of different ways to make drinking enough water easier and more pleasant. I'm sure there are more. Now you don't have to try harder; now you just drink the water because it's there and it's nice to drink.
I'm not saying you'll suddenly be perfect and you'll be drinking enough water every day forevermore. But you will be doing a better job than you were before, and that's the goal!
The boulders that stop a lot of folk from running
A lot of people try to run the way they've seen it done by others, whether that's on social media, by friends or by whoever they think a "proper runner" is. Usually this involves things like early morning starts, long runs at the weekend, parkrun on a Saturday, a watch that shouts at you, a particular running uniform and a training plan that would break even the likes of David Goggins.
But maybe you aren't a morning person, or maybe you're too tired at the weekends for a long run, maybe you hate running with other people, your watch triggers your demand avoidance, the running uniform triggers dysphoria and the training plan you are following leaves you burned out and injured after a couple of weeks. All of these things are huge boulders sitting right in the way, and so you keep not running. Or at least not regularly.
Take some time to figure out your boulders and how to push them off the hill. If running in the morning is a problem, maybe you can run at 6pm instead of 6am. Early morning runners are not morally superior to everyone else just because they got up before the birds. The best time to do a run is the time you'll actually do it.
Same with everything else. If you hate running alone, find people. If you hate running with people, don't (or join Queer Runnings!). If getting your kit together in the morning is the bit that stops you, lay it out the night before. If you keep skipping runs because you're exhausted, take a look at the training plan you are following and ask yourself, is it realistic? If the route is boring, change it up, or make it more interesting. Things like bagging summits, post boxes, streets in your city or Pokémon… we actually have a bagging channel in our club Discord for folk who love to collect things on their runs.
Finally
As a run coach, I've encountered many, many boulders, and some are easier to move than others. But more often than not it's the really boring things that help people be more consistent. The solution is never the latest gadget, supplement or whatever system/planner your favourite influencer is trying to sell you this month.
I've lost count of the number of runners who have come to me wondering why getting out for a 30-minute jog feels like they're having to psych themselves up to go into battle, and it turns out they aren't drinking enough, are underfed, are running on five hours of sleep or are following a plan that is just too much for them.
If you're eating enough, drinking enough, sleeping enough and following a sensible plan, everything is easier. Running is easier. Work is easier. Being a person is easier. And who doesn't want that?
This is one of the tools I use in the Autumn Accountability Club, alongside a handful of others that do the same job of making a consistent habit feel doable. It's ten weeks, 100% online and it starts on 5 October. Find out more here.
