Perfectionism is sneaky. It disguises itself as high standards, motivation, and discipline. For many runners, perfectionism becomes a mental trap that leads to self-judgment, avoidance, and burnout instead of progress.

Think for a moment about a time when you had a workout scheduled that you just didn’t want to do. You felt tired. Your mind was pushing you around so much so that you thought of just giving in to it, laying on the couch and watching some Netflix. But… you didn’t, you went out for the workout and executed it perfectly, you were focused and engaged. The noise in your headed quieted down a bit and sometimes it was non-existent. This is a great example of acceptance and commitment in action. You committed to doing action in spite the stuff coming up for you and pushing you around.

What’s a story you tell yourself over and over that’s just not true?

The first one I can think of is that “I’m not an athlete.” Then I look through my life and see, football, baseball, wrestling, rock-climbing, mountaineering, alpine skiing, telemark skiing, ski-touring, track, marathon, ultramarathons, road races, oh, and almost forgot the years of Karate and Judo.