Knowing when to pace yourself

It was the day of the marathon in Edinburgh today.  Now I’ve never run a marathon (nor, let’s be honest, am I ever likely to) but I do know that one of the main pieces of advice for running the distance is to pace yourself.

‘Pacing yourself’ is a good mantra to hold onto whatever you’re doing, never mind a marathon.  In coaching and NLP we’re taught the importance of pacing another person to establish rapport.  But it’s just as important to pace yourself as other people – perhaps even more so if you’re to remain well, happy, balanced and able to support others.

Pacing yourself includes:

• Paying attention to your own experience without immediately trying to change it
• Taking your foot off the accelerator of growth and learning, and allowing yourself just to be
• Treating yourself as would another, including a dose of realism in your expectations
• Respecting your own model of the world: where you’re at, where you’ve come from, the distance travelled
• Accepting yourself the way you are: completely human, and completely perfect

And you know the funny thing is, when you slow down a bit, take the pressure off, just stop and take a breather… your motivation and energy will all return, stronger than ever, so you can keep on running, with a new spring in your step, ready for the finishing line.