{"id":4396,"date":"2012-02-15T20:41:07","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T12:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=4396"},"modified":"2025-03-06T17:11:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T17:11:47","slug":"when-thoughts-finally-become-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2012\/02\/15\/when-thoughts-finally-become-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Running is a break from the neurological rat race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TLDR: Don&#8217;t think so much, just run. The reward is a break from the neurological rat race.<\/p>\n<p>So today was a normal day. I got a couple more hours of sleep than I usually do (so I was only <em>mildly<\/em> delirious from sleep deprivation). As I was walking down the jetty at Tekong Ferry Terminal, I bumped into an equally sleepy friend. And he asked me, &#8220;Are you going to run later?&#8221; We have mass runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.<\/p>\n<p>I was tired, sleepy, lethargic. The idea of getting into a chair, slouching a corner and dozing off just seemed so tantalizing. And it&#8217;s what I had been doing for the past few weeks. I only went for one of Tekong&#8217;s morning runs since I got here.<\/p>\n<p>But an interesting thing happened. When I got into my office, I found myself bursting to change into my running attire. Why? I don&#8217;t know. It wasn&#8217;t a long, drawn-out internal argument. I never win those battles. Rather, it felt like a tiny explosion that cascaded unremarkably through my nervous system. I entered the door, made a subconscious snap-decision that I was going to run. I was thinking about it as I was tying my laces. <strong>Why was I doing this, when I normally wouldn&#8217;t?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The answer was apparently so self-evident that it didn&#8217;t see a need to explain itself to me. But I kept at it, and slowly a picture began to emerge.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Part of me was looking out for <a title=\"Hacking Delayed Gratification: The Tomorrow-Self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/3392\/hacking-delayed-gratification-the-tomorrow-self\/\">Tomorrow-Visa<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Part of me was thinking about my push-ups routine and the date I had with my girlfriend the night before- about the importance and value of being spontaneous.<\/li>\n<li>And part of me was thinking about Baby Steps.<\/li>\n<li>But really, I wasn&#8217;t thinking at all. It all came together with amazing intensity and momentum- &#8220;Visa, don&#8217;t whine, don&#8217;t bitch, don&#8217;t even think. Put on your fucking shoes and get the fuck out\u00a0of the door. Just get out. Show up. Go.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And I did. And I ran. And was totally worth it. And I kept thinking-but-not-thinking as I was running. The thoughts just revealed themselves to me, without any real thinking being done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This was my reward, a break from the neurological rat-race.<\/strong> All the information, all the thinking, the years of frustration, the failures and the mediocrity- it seemed insurmountable because nothing seemed to be working. But turns out I was really just biding my time, gathering my resources, coiling my spring. And when the opportunity for decisive action arose, I found myself taking it, without even consulting me first. I had reached the critical mass. Something clicked. Something magical happen.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure what I want to talk about, but I feel like I&#8217;ve bust a rut, burst into the sky. I&#8217;m sure it can happen for you too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TLDR: Don&#8217;t think so much, just run. The reward is a break from the neurological rat race. So today was a normal day. I got a couple more hours of sleep than I usually do (so I was only mildly delirious from sleep deprivation). As I was walking down the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,23],"tags":[725,294],"class_list":["post-4396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-reflections","tag-bmod","tag-memoirs-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-18U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9297,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions\/9297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}