As runners, let’s face it, we sometimes respond well to guilt.
If we miss an early morning workout, we make sure we get out for at least a short one that evening.
If we keep our training partner waiting at the rendezvous point, we promise to be more punctual from then on (and we are).
If we feel guilty come December because we didn’t train as diligently as we’d planned during the year (our race results prove it), we determine to do better next year.
These are all instances whereby guilt can motivate us in positive ways. We feel bad about our actions, and we promise to do better. These are isolated instances, and we learn from them.
Beware the endless guilt trip
The problem starts when guilt becomes a frequent and prime motivator for our running. At that point, running becomes a form of penance or punishment for the guilt we feel about whatever.
At Offline Running, my coaching and blogging service, I will never guilt-trip you about your running, or anything else. Goodness knows, you may do that enough as it is:
- For eating or drinking too much over the weekend.
- For not staying in better touch with your aging parents.
- For spending so much money on this, rather than that.
- For getting so angry and saying such mean things to your partner in that last fight.
- For not being nicer to people.
- For [add yours here].
It’s true, the what-I-feel-guilty-about list can get long in a hurry if you let yourself dwell on it.
Time to switch things up
What to use as your super motivator in place of guilt? Accountability. As in, the entirely positive, powerfully motivating “good cousin” of guilt. As in, the accountability you immediately gain from having a running coach.
And that coach accountability comes with significant follow-on effects. Namely, when you become accountable to your coach, you become more accountable to yourself and your running.
A positive force for better running
Accountability versus guilt. The former is positive, motivating, and it feels good when you’re feeling it.
Guilt, on the other hand, is negative. Bad juju. Sure, it can motivate your running at times—i.e. “I skipped all my runs last week; this week I will make up for it”—but that kind of motivation grows stale. Annoying. And less effective over time.
Eventually, you start resenting it. “I feel too much guilt in my life as it is,” you say. “And now I’m feeling it with my running, too?”
So, like any reasonable person who doesn’t like feeling guilty all the time, you consider quitting running.
Alternatively. You can sign up for my run coaching service. At which point I will get you started on accountability, and help you jettison that guilt-as-motivator from your running.
Bottom line: Being accountable to a coach—and by extension yourself and your running—is a far more pleasant and sustainable recipe for long-term running success than guilt.