Hmm, ring a bell?
Yes, the book is Self-Control: Stanford's Most Popular Psychology Course. I was drawn to this cover and bought a copy of Self-Control in 2013.
This book, Self-Control, is a mega-bestseller, with over 4 million copies sold. Now, its author Kelly McGonigal's second book on the topic of self-control is also available in Chinese, which is "Self-Control: A Stanford Psychology Course on Mastering Yourself" that I'm going to introduce to you today, and it talks about how to break through your self-perception and succeed in mastering yourself in sports.
It has a bottle of orange juice-like drink on the cover, which is also super tempting.
To be honest, I'm not really a fan of books that talk about exercise. I've bought The Running Bible and Take Control: Unlocking a Life Without Fatigue or Anxiety before, and they've all been torn out of their plastic covers and left to eat dust on the shelf.
With this book, Self-Control 2, I decided to finish it out of faith in the one from 8 years ago. What I didn't expect was that some of the things it talked about actually spoke to my experience of running for over three years, and some of the things it talked about actually refreshed some of the phenomena I've always disdained, such as running with headphones and listening to songs. So, I'm here today to share this book with you. There are three parts:
Let's talk about them one by one.
If you pay attention to the cover just now, you'll see the benefits of exercise printed on the bottle of that drink:
Exercise brings us joy, identity, belonging, and hope, and allows us to redefine ourselves and be more likely to transcend ourselves.
It's easy for such succinct generalizations to fall on deaf ears. But no one can erase my own experience.
In June 2018, I tried to start running because I wanted to get stronger through exercise for health reasons. At first it was quite painful, in the New Era Park fast walking a lap to gasp for breath, jogging a lap to the heart muttering and pounding non-stop. Then I slowly went from half a lap, one lap, to two laps, three laps, to seven laps, eight laps, from a pace of seven or eight minutes, to a pace of five and a half minutes, and now I can run 15 kilometers without stopping, maintaining a pace of about five and a half minutes.
The reason I've been able to run consistently and increase the amount I run in a single session is because I've found that at a certain point in the day, the stagnant bulk of the first few kilometers fades away, and a feeling of lightness and pleasure miraculously arrives, spreading like ripples from the center of my body, making me want to heave a few laughs.
This magical feeling of joy, which I learned from watching Self-Control 2, is called "euphoria".
In fact, this euphoria is not unique to running.
In the last few days, I've been observing myself and trying to verify the euphoria that comes with 20 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise. As a result, I realized that whenever I ran for 23-25 minutes, this feeling would come.
That's when I realized why I would later keep each run at a distance of more than five kilometers - because then it could be more than 25 minutes, and that ineffable feeling of euphoria would come.
The feeling of euphoria recurs during a long run, and on the morning of October 16th, when I ran 4 kilometers, my limbs started to feel better, so I kept running. When I ran past 10 kilometers, I suddenly felt lighter and lighter, and the sound of "one more kilometer, one more kilometer" kept ringing in my mind. I was guided by this voice and ran 14 kilometers.
Exercise not only brings joy, it also restructures our lives.
Exercise also fights depression.
Let's take a little survey: Have you ever wanted to do a certain kind of exercise but didn't start? Have you ever tried to do something and given up?
If so, please leave a comment at the end of the article with the name of the sport.
I'm guessing a lot of people have had the experience of either not being able to start a sport or giving up after a few attempts due to the pain.
So what's the best way to start exercising?
Self-Control 2 says:
This passage identifies a large category of reasons why many people don't like exercise or can't start exercising - they haven't found the right exercise for them, which is broken down into the following categories:
So for a lot of people, it's not that they don't naturally like to exercise, or can't start exercising, it's that they haven't found the right exercise. So for many people, it's not that they don't like exercise and can't start it, it's that they haven't found the right exercise. Then to start exercise, enjoy the benefits of exercise, from the above aspects, more to try, you may be in a desperate situation, open up.
Self-Control 2 mentions a woman who didn't enjoy exercise until she was 40, but after she was in her 40s, she came across rowing and suddenly loved it. She told the author, "A lot of the women I rowed with didn't think they were athlete material, and once they got in the boat and their bodies said yes, they found a place to belong."
A similar situation is more common in China. I have seen many amazons dancing to the beat of the music in various squares and parks in Xi'an. And inside these amazons, seven out of ten did not dance before, or even do other forms of exercise. But the rhythm of the square dance, the field and bring their own sense of belonging, let them feel that everything is just right, the right way, appropriate, so they joined the dancing team.
One of my coworkers, after giving birth, wanted to get back in shape through exercise. Tried running and found it too boring. Tried yoga and found the tendons too hard and painful to pull up. Then she came into contact with the fitness equation room, community store is also close to home, the time can be about their own, the environment is also very good, the coach will not always stare at their own to make themselves feel constrained, it is very suitable for their own, they bought the fitness equation room of the class, and has been adhering to the fitness.
Often, exercise is the same as falling in love, you have to find the right person to have the feeling of love, before you are willing to go on. But there are some cases, you met the right person, but did not wait to harvest the "sweet love", because of some small problems and give up. In terms of exercise, this "sweetness of love" is the reward of exercise. Once you stick around a little longer and experience a variety of rewards, you'll be hooked.
The rewards of exercise are not only pleasure, but also a sense of competence, the company and encouragement of others, and the pleasure of making friends.
In Self-Control 2, there's a reference to Nora Haefele, a tax accountant who took up running in her fifties. She started out walking on the treadmill in her office, and soon realized that indoor exercise wasn't for her. Then she started to get out of her cubicle and participate in outdoor "national sports". National sports are sports like walking, hiking, biking, and swimming, where anyone can join in at any time and at their own pace, as long as it's within a designated time frame. Such a national sport not only allows you to enjoy the scenery, but also the company of others.
Hafele began participating in 10K walks across the U.S., enjoying not only the travel but also the fun of meeting new people. The first time she signed up to participate in the race is to walk 5 kilometers, at first she thought that the participants are tall young people, will think she is fat and old, as she as a foreigner, the heart is particularly afraid. She later realized that this was not the case and that everyone welcomed her. She also realized after the competition that she could do it. So Hefele has been on an athletic journey ever since, and has now completed more than 200 races, including 85 half marathons.
To stick with exercise and wait for the reward, you can also try exercising to music.
This passage points to two main principles to look to when finding a song list that works for you:
For example, as soon as I hear "The Cup Of Life," I want to run because of its rhythm. Its lyrics, meanwhile, are particularly evocative of memories and positive emotions for me. For example, the following lines:
There's another very important reason why I feel so strongly about this song - it was the theme song for the 1998 World Cup, and I loved playing soccer in high school, and even though I was a senior in high school, under the pressure of the entrance exams, I snuck out of school with my classmates many times to go to the World Cup, and listened to the song and danced to it many times. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to get a good deal on the way to the next level.
So, what about you? In your past experience, what are the songs, the rhythm is strong, can inspire your passion, so that you hear the urge to want to run, jump, dance? You are welcome to leave a comment after the article with the names of these songs.
If you find such songs, then you can listen to them while exercising, and they might just change your exercise experience. Of course, you can also go online and search for other people's exercise song lists and follow the two principles mentioned above to pick the right tracks for you.
After you are able to start exercising and enjoy the benefits of exercise, there will be some challenging and difficult moments, such as extreme marathons, triathlons, hiking Lop Nor and so on, and at this time, the fear, pain and so on, are likely to slow you down, and drag you down to the point where you give up.
So how do you deal with these scenarios?
This is the 1st strategy given in the book - forget the end and focus on the present.
Famous Japanese marathoner, Benichi Yamada, won the world championship twice, in the 1984 and 1987 international marathons. His secret is that before each race, ride the race route carefully and draw the more eye-catching signs along the way, such as the first sign is a bank, the second sign is an oddly large tree, the third sign is a high-rise building ...... so that it has been drawn to the end of the race. When the race starts, he keeps his eyes on the first target and sprints past it at a speed of 100 meters. After reaching the first target, he then sprints towards the second target at the same speed. Such a strategy is much more efficient than constantly thinking about the finish line more than 40 kilometers away.
The strategy used by Benichi Yamada is really what Self-Control 2 calls, focusing on the present moment.
This is the 2nd strategy given in the book - gaining optimism through music and memories.
Think about challenges in your past that made you want to give up at first, but then you thought about your loved ones and persevered?
Such precious memories can give us strength time and time again, evoking positive emotions and supporting us through difficult times.
This is the 3rd strategy given in the book - focus on the temporary nature of pain.
In 1999, when I was a sophomore in college, I went with my classmates to Vermilion Forest Park, and we, as a subgroup, decided to climb the top of the ice crystals. It was drizzling, and as we climbed upward, the drizzle gradually turned into light snow, and further up, the hillside also began to snow. We couldn't see the top of the mountain, and the more we climbed, the more tired we got, so a few of us turned back. The other four students and I kept shouting things like "we're almost there", "we'll get there if we climb over this slope", "we've only got the last 100 meters to go", to encourage ourselves to continue to climb up until we reached the top. The first thing you need to do is to get to the top of the mountain.
At that time, we used this third strategy, pretending that the pain is temporary, pretending that victory is just around the corner. In fact, many people have used this strategy.
Can you think of any scenarios where you've used a similar strategy in the past?
This is the 4th strategy shared in the book - getting courage and support from others.
Derek Redmond, a British sprinter and world record holder, tore the back of his thigh muscle group with 15 seconds to go in the 400-meter semifinals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and had to pick up his right leg and awkwardly hop along on one foot. At this point, his father rushed down from the stands, ran to Redmond's side, and put his hand on his shoulder. Redmond cried out in pain and buried his face in his father's chest as they walked the last 100 meters together.
Dependence on others does help us keep going.
On October 24, my daughter, Xiaoxiao, and a few classmates played with the expansion of training projects, including an extreme speed, to jump from about ten meters high platform, similar to bungee jumping. Xiaoxiao's classmate Wu is the first to challenge this project, there is a greater sense of fear, several times standing in the jumping position, and several times to leave, back and forth for seven or eight minutes, did not complete that jump. Xiaoxiao and a few other students, and constantly give Wu encouragement, I smile and Xiaoxiao mom also shouted at the bottom of Wu support, and then Wu's uncle came to the bottom of the small Wu cheering, and ultimately, and after two struggles, Wu drummed up the courage to jump out, jumped down.
This experience of Xiao Wu also validates the effectiveness of the 4th strategy.
Well, that's my interpretation of some of the content in the book Self-Control: Stanford's Psychology Course on Taking Charge of Yourself, including the benefits of exercise, how to start exercising, and the 4 strategies for surviving tough times.
In fact, there's a lot more in this book, especially with all the psychological research and the wealth of case studies on why exercise has so many benefits and why it can help us take control of ourselves, and it's well worth a read. Anyone who wants to learn more about exercise should read this book.
Finally I would like to say one more thing, from 2018 to adhere to the morning run, to now more than three years, my physical condition, than three years ago, much better, body shape, energy, adaptability, endurance, etc., have been significantly improved, even my daughter said, I am in their class classmates among the dads, body shape and mental outlook, look a little better.
If you can move, move!