by elmads

Introduction

“There is something magical about running: after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.”

-Kristin Armstrong

I’ve been intentionally running for health purposes since 2017.

I clearly remember back then, like it was just yesterday, that I told my 2017 self that I wanted to make my future self very grateful and proud of his past self.

And, indeed, I am very proud of my 2017 self for not just starting the habit but for also being consistent and disciplined all the way through to this day. It paved the way for me to be able to do what I thought I would never be able to reach in my lifetime.

Running changes not just a person’s health but also his or her frame of mind.

You are weak

I started recording my pace and distance run on the 24th of April 2017, which was also the first day of my running endeavour. I still remember how I felt that day—the uncomfortable feeling on my calf on each stride, the heaviness of my body, and the laboured breathing. I was completely out of shape; my endurance and cardiovascular levels were poor; I was physically and psychologically weak.

At the same time, there were other people running in the area where I ran. They were teenagers and older individuals than myself who were doing a billion times better than I was.

That time my mind told me this: “You might as well stop doing this because you’re weak and you’re embarrassing yourself”, but in doing so, I would never know what I could reach if I stopped it now and didn’t even try. So, I continued and did my utmost best to be disciplined and consistent. To walk, then jog, and eventually run 3–4 times a week, after or before work and/or every day off.

Each running session was a nightmare—the pain, the hardship, my mind playing its self-depreciation and self-doubt games—and it kept on shouting at me to stop this barbaric endeavour, to just sit down and stay at home, to comfortably eat, to sleep for most of the day, to watch funny videos tirelessly, to doom scroll on social media endlessly, and just do other things than this sadistic way of exercising and just be comfortable in what is pleasurable, which I had been doing for the 1st quarter of my lifetime.

I was always on the edge of following what my brain wanted me to do, but I wanted my habits and thinking to be different for my future self. Without a miss, I continuously gathered my willpower and told myself that this too shall pass, that it will take me months, if not years, for my body and mind to get used to this path—comfortability in being uncomfortable.

What I’m changing is not just the day’s physical and mental training but also my lifestyle in general.

My body and mind have been weak for a long time, and it is understandable that enduring the pain of being weak and of change is only fleeting for people who are keen to improve themselves.

I am weak, but that shouldn’t stop me from being as weak as the person that I was yesterday. I told myself that I was not doing this for anyone but myself. Having the frame of mind of “I am way better today than I was yesterday.”

>>>How I applied this to investing: I’m investing not for the sake of being the best, because I am not and will never be the best. Instead, I am just an ordinary person who does his best to reach his financial goals through investing for himself and his family.

As with running, I am also weak in investing, but being a forever learner will make a substantial difference in my investment journey.

I’ll drop here my favourite quote from Socrates about learning.

“For I am the wisest man alive, because I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

— Socrates

Humility and self-awareness are underrated human qualities for self-improvement.

Your life today has been influenced by your choices 3-5 years ago. The same thing will happen on the actions you take today. Think long-term

My fastest on the road 5k run was back on 5^th of August 2019 finishing at 24 minutes 36 seconds with a pace of 4’55” or a car speed of 12.20kph/ 7.58mph , while my fastest on the road 10k run was on the 25^th of May 2022 finishing at 56 minutes 2 seconds with a pace of 5’38” or a car speed of 10.63kph/ 6.61mph.

My fastest on-road 5k run was back on August 5th, 2019, finishing at 24 minutes, 36 seconds with a pace of 4’55” or a car speed of 12.20 kph or 7.58 mph , while my fastest on-road 10k run was on the 25^th of May 2022, finishing at 56 minutes, 2 seconds with a pace of 5’38” or a car speed of 10.63 kph or 6.61 mph.

It took me approximately 1,244.98 km before I was able to hit my sub-25 minute road run 5k personal record, and roughly 3,308.19 km before I attaining my sub-1 hour road run 10k personal record.

These two personal running records of mine weren’t because I was born with good genetics or because I’ve been running since I was a kid. It was due to the decisions I made in 2017.

Just ask yourself this question: What do you think will happen after a decade or two if you continue the same habits that you’ve been practising now? If you don’t think that it would be helpful for you or make you fulfilled and happy, then take actions today based on the life that you want in the future. 

There are no shortcuts; there are only integrity, energy, consistency, discipline, focus, and patience.

>>>How I applied this to investing: I just wanted to make my hard-earned money work for me without requiring physical labour, then my dad and uncle introduced me to investing. I was hesitant at first, but I really wanted to make things easier for me in the future, which is why I started investing. Since then, I’ve been consistently reaping the benefits of what my younger self started nine years ago.

We have limitations, but we wouldn’t know what it is if we don’t even try pushing ourselves

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

—T.S. Elliot

We will always have limitations for every goal that we try to achieve, and that’s completely fine because we are human beings.

That being said, we wouldn’t know what our limitations would be if we didn’t even try to push our boundaries to reach our full potential.

I was told by my dad before that their side of the family line—which also runs into my veins—has poor cardio-respiratory genetics. Basically,  what he said is that our family’s cardio-respiratory endurance is not good.

I actually believed in what he said to me before, but having to be able to run distances that I never thought possible for me to do (not even in my wildest dreams; it didn’t even enter the minds of my student and newly entered workforce selves before) I say to myself now that what my dad told me about our poor cardiorespiratory endurance is just a self-limiting belief.

Don’t get me wrong; It’s not that my dad told me lies about our family’s cardio-respiratory endurance. It’s just that no one in my family line before me ran for health and fitness purposes. Take note: running for leisure and for health wasn’t practised until the late 20th century.

Two of my uncles and myself are the only ones in my family who I know run. And the three of us actually have good cardio-respiratory conditioning even to this day.

What have I learned? You’ll never know what you can and cannot do until you try.

Another example was during the early stages of my running training. I only initially planned to run 5 km to build my cardio-respiratory endurance. I told myself that my mind and body are not built for 10-kilometre runs. I automatically limited myself. But, after 5 years of consistently running, to my surprise, I am now able to run for more than 10 kilometres.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to run 21km, 42 km, and ultra marathons in the future, or if I’ll still be willing to train and push myself to reach that level of distance running. But I’ve already learned my lesson, and I’ll never ever question again what the things are that I cannot do until I actually try doing them.

You’ll never know what you can and cannot do until you start doing it with discipline, consistency, and over a long period of time.

As the Nike slogan says:

Just do it

>>>How I applied this in investing: I have doubts if I’ll ever be able to hit my goal of 15%–20% of long-term investment compounded annual growth rate for my whole investment lifetime. In spite of this, I am well aware that I just need to keep on doing it, continuously learn, and enjoy the path of climbing my chosen mountain top.

Measure your progress by gathering data

Measuring our progress makes sure we don’t regress from our previous state. It is a means for us to see which one works and doesn’t work. It is the learning, unlearning and relearning strategy which will be a vital point to our future improvement and progression.

Measuring our progress makes sure we don’t regress from our previous state. It is a means for us to see which one works and which one doesn’t. It is the learning, unlearning, and relearning strategy that will be vital to our future improvement and progression.

Tracking our running progress is easier now than it was 5 to 10 years ago. This is all thanks to the present technologies that can monitor and record our pace, distance run,  heart rate, and others. Technological applications and devices such as smart phone applications (Nike Run Club), Sport Smart Watches (Garmin), Treadmills (Nordictrack), and also other advanced tools for more comprehensive running data like the Stryd Power Metre and heart rate monitor straps (Garmin HRM-Pro Plus).

I collect all the data gathered from my running history and plug it into my personal spreadsheet. I make reports on an annual basis to see where I was before, where I am right now, and how likely it is that I will be able to reach the goal I have set for myself if I continue doing what I’ve been doing. This gives me a sense of direction and fulfilment. If things don’t work out as I’ve expected, then I need to analyse the data and myself, then change what’s hindering my progress.

>>>How I applied this to investing: I record my annual investment performance and compare it with an index to see how I am generally doing. I still try not to beat myself up and not to expect too much from myself if I am not able to supersede my benchmark index return. I always emphasise to myself that the priority is to reach my investment goals, and as long as those returns are enough to hit them, then I shouldn’t even be too hard on myself.

This is the reason I have my three-tiered priority investment annual percentage goal. Firstly, my returns should supersede the inflation of the currency I use in my day-to-day living (This is the GBP, as of this writing). Secondly, my returns should be 10% or more, and thirdly, I should beat the S&P 500 and the FTSE All-World Indices.

Don’t be a miser. Spend money on things you think will give you added growth on your personal specific aims

Two of my greatest irreversible greenhorn mistakes in running are, I did not save and spend money to buy the proper pair of running shoes and did not learn enough about running. These grave mistakes resulted to a lower right back pain injury, which has been a part of my life since then.

Two of my greatest irreversible greenhorn mistakes in running are, I did not save and spend money to buy the proper pair of running shoes and that I did not learn enough about running. These grave mistakes resulted in a lower right back injury, which has been a part of my life since then.

The pair of shoes I used when I got the injury was the World Balance Omni Flex “Blue”. It was not a pair of running shoes, it was more of a casual day-to-day kind of shoe. I didn’t care back then, I just kept on using it to the extent that it reached 251km of running distance.

The injury happened during an interval training run that I did with that pair of shoes a few years ago. In the middle of that run, I suddenly felt something snap on my right lower back, which was immediately followed by an uncomfortable sensation of sharp pain that radiated to my right buttock and right thigh.

I do know for a fact that my improper running form for fast paces back then could have substantially contributed to it. Yet, I couldn’t completely rule out that the pair of shoes I wore during that interval run didn’t have any contribution to what transpired.

It was completely ironic, because I started running for health purposes, but then I did it wrongly, hence the injury.

Since that day, I studied further about running forms, stride, gait, foot strike, foot roll movement, running shoes, passive and active stretches, a proper training regimen that will help reduce the risk of further injuries, and a lot more.

I started to save and then spend money on the proper running shoe, which is specifically applicable to my running form, gait, foot strike, and foot roll movements.

>>>How I applied this to investing: I paid a subscription to a website that substantially reduced my time spent doing financial research on different companies. The time saved gave me additional time to do other things like blogging, reading, running, and whatnot. This also helped me quickly disregard companies that were not within my circle of competence and investment checklist. It also somehow significantly reduces the risk of a potential investment loss in my portfolio. (either realised or unrealized losses).

To Sum It Up

Running shows some of our physical capabilities, our mental fortitude, and our true selves.

It is one of the best individual physical activities because it completely lets you compete with yourself head-on.

It’s not you vs. someone else; it’s you vs. you. The pursuit of conquering your own internal domain

I never expected that an activity I started for health purposes would teach me things about myself as a person and change how I think. How I process short-term physical and mental pain, how to cope with it, and how to use it to further better myself holistically.

Knowledge is my Sword and Patience is my Shield,

elmads

This blog is for informational purposes only and not a Financial Recommendation. Not all information will be accurate. Consult an independent financial professional before making any major financial decisions.