A speaker reflects on completing four consecutive parkruns and uses that to argue against perfectionism by competing with yourself instead. Consistency matters more: control what you can like training, food, hydration, and sleep. Find your purpose first.
Chapters
I've just completed my 4th consecutive parkrun. Yesterday I was working with a teenager who was really struggling with perfectionism. All of her anxiety was caused by always wanting to be the best, and when she wasn't, it led her to feel really anxious and leading to depression. And I was thinking of that today as I'd only just finished the first of 4 laps that we do here at Salisbury, when the leading runner passed me. So he was already like 50% ahead of me, and if I was a perfectionist, that would lead me potentially to give up because there was no way I was ever going to catch him. So the antidote to perfectionism is just to compete with yourself. There was no way on earth I'm ever going to be able to do parkrun in the 16 minutes or so that the winners here do it, but I can continue to improve on my time. So over the 4 runs that I've done, um, first week was like benchmark, second week I actually went backwards— happens— third week I took a minute off, and today I've just taken another 19 seconds off. So it's all about consistency. If you keep doing something, you start to get better, and when you compete with yourself, it's a fair comparison. Because all of those things that can allow me to get faster are things within my control. It's the training that I do, in the days in between. It's the food that I had the night before, what I have for breakfast today, my hydration— today's problem— um, the amount of sleep that I had last night. They're all factors that I can control. And, you know, I did pretty crap time, to be honest, but I'm proud of myself because it was faster than last week. And the other thing that really helps me to get up on a Saturday morning when really what I want to do is stay in bed is to have a purpose. So my purpose is to be fit and to keep myself at a level of fitness that I can continue doing my umpiring and can continue to fit in the clothes and eat my barbecue tonight. Purpose is such a strong motivator, and I just want to do a shout out today to Chantal Cornelius and William Buist, who are doing the— I think it's called Stones to Stones. It's 2 back-to-back marathon walks. They have been training for absolute months And weather is in some ways not being very kind to them today in this heat, but they have a purpose because they're raising money for Alzheimer's Society. Chantal's mum was afflicted with dementia, and when you have a strong purpose, that's what keeps you going, makes you get up on those days that you don't want to. So those 3 things put together really, really help. Don't be a perfectionist. Be your best you, control the things that you can control, and keep edging yourself forward. And with consistency, your comfort zone gets bigger and bigger, you get better and better, stronger and stronger, and more confident. When I first did the parkrun 4 weeks ago, I was really nervous. Today I kind of got up, and I wouldn't quite say that I was looking forward to it, but I certainly wasn't worried about it because I now know that I can do it without stopping to walk, and I will continue to try and get a little bit faster. But my purpose on those days when I don't want to get up will get me up, will get me running, and each week hopefully I'll be a little bit better. I hope you have an amazing sunny weekend. Enjoy it, and thank you for listening. Speak to you soon. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
