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12 Months to Marathon - Episode 2 - The Change Process · 12 Months to Marathon

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to episode two of the 12 Months Marathon Podcast with me, John Hill, the running podcast for people over 35 with marathon dreams.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, episode number one, I gave you a very brief background to me and my running journey to put you a little bit in the picture of where we're coming from here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, I'll go off on a few tangents on these things.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I like to do.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just like to talk and hopefully give you some value.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to do first is I want to talk a little bit more about change and the process, particularly that I went through, which I briefly touched on on the last podcast, which may help you in your journey.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whether that be a journey where you're starting out as a runner, or whether that be a journey where you're looking to achieve your potential and maybe even do a personal best.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because I tend to work with two types of people.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The first group of people are people who are starting the journey, and the second type of people are people looking to fulfil their potential, whatever that might be.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's people over the age of 35, similar age to myself, because I think that's where we start to believe that we can't do the things that we used to do.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably the only person who doesn't want to be in the shape he was in in his 20s.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a bit of an anomaly there because I was overweight until the age of 28, barring a brief flirtation with losing weight in my early 20s.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to talk to you today about the change process and the very start of the journey.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as I briefly touched on on the last podcast, I started my own personal journey in 2005, where I lost about three stone towards the end of that year.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I had a bit of a messy breakup relationship-wise, a few things happened, and I somewhat just clicked.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the expression that a lot of people lose use actually when they change.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: They go, Oh, something just clicked, and it did, something just clicked, and I decided that enough was enough, and I wanted to lose weight for good.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I went on a journey, uh, lost that three-stone, and then at the start of 2006, started to get interested a little bit more in health and fitness, nutrition, and that side of things, and decided to learn a bit more, which eventually got me into the place where I qualified as a personal trainer, which I didn't do very much with for a bit until I came across a lucky break, which got me into the industry and where I've been now since 2009, and my journey's gone from losing weight to personal trainer to group fitness coach to running coach.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, I'm just a coach who helps people achieve their potential.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about change from the point of view of when I started and how I did it, and this may help you if you are looking to change something.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now that might be you're looking to go from couch to 5k, that might be you're looking to go to a half marathon personal best, that might be you're looking to go to marathon.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Each of these places that we find ourselves in life, change is important, and it's not as obvious as people think it is.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, well, if I'm currently running 10k and I want to run a half marathon, I need to change my running plan.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's obvious, but that's just the mechanics of it.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the way you think about change that for me is more important, particularly when you start out, because you can't stay the same person you are now and expect to do different things, and those habits and those changes stick.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is why so many people achieve certain things and then go backwards and never do it again.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, will I ever try will I ever do multiple sub three marathons?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know because for me, it's interesting, that was a it felt like a bit of a one and done.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But will I go back to the well?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Potentially.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll never stop keeping fit and I'll never stop running or I'll never stop pushing myself.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whether or not I push myself to do a sub-three and keep doing sub three marathons is is a different conversation.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I've got to derive a level of enjoyment from my training, and that's important.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: You have to derive a level of enjoyment in training.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the point I'm trying to make is if you are the type of person that does a little bit of fitness, runs, and then stops for years, that's because you haven't really changed.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about environmental factors, injuries, massive life change, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about either conscious or unconscious decisions to not continue on the path, and that's potentially because we haven't changed and we haven't looked at change as it is, and we haven't decided to become a different person.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you looked at me at the age of 28 years old compared to now, I am a totally different person.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what's fascinating, and I've always found this fascinating, and you might have experienced this yourself, is that people talk to me now like I'm the person I used to be, because they they can't accept at some level that I've changed, and it's really odd, and it's quite an odd phenomenon, but I I quite like it because people say you are this, and it's like, No, you knew that that's what you knew years ago because people a lot of people don't really change, they struggle with you when you do change, and that's part of the process as well.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: You have to deal with that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna briefly touch on a concept which I came across many years ago when I first became a neurolinguistic programming practitioner, NLP for short, and it was about how we go through different levels when we when we try and change something, and this might help you if you are looking to maybe start a running journey or a fitness journey or maybe achieve your potential.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you imagine, like almost like a dartboard and with five sections in it, okay, so a round circle with five sections in it.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So on the outer circle, what you have is your behaviors.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sorry, your results are on the outer circle.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the results you are currently getting for what you are doing, okay, the results.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are following a certain running plan or a certain running routine, you are going to get a set of results for that running routine.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you wanted to change those results, the first place you would go, which is the next circle in, is your behaviors.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you say, Well, okay, I need to change my behaviours.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: If I want to run half marathon instead of running 10k, I need to change my behaviors.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we will follow a different plan.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all fine.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And potentially what might happen there is you might follow that plan and then get a different result, which is your half marathon.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: The problem stroke challenge that you get into potentially varies.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to continue on that path or maintain that path, you have to go a little deeper.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when we get into the next one, which is values.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, sorry, skills.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not doing good at this podcast, Lark.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Next one is skills.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And what are skills?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why are skills different from behaviors?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, organization and time management is a skill because if you're going to have to run more, you need to manage your time and organize yourself better and discipline yourself better because you need to make more time for running.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a skill.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then you go into values, and values are what's important to you.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what is important to you?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if I look at a classic weight loss situation, one of the reasons why a lot of people don't ever lose weight is because it's not important to them.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: They say it is, but it's not.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they might follow a diet, for example, and lose a bit of weight, but because inherently it's not important to them, they don't keep the weight off, it's because they haven't made it a value.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So a value would be health and fitness is important to me, yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or achieving my potential is important to me.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's a value, yeah.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Once you go past values, you go to the center of the circle, which is then identity, which it then just becomes who you are.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in running terms, what you've got to look at is who do I have to become in order to achieve the goals I want to achieve, but then also maintain the standard that I'm at so I don't ever go backwards.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by go backwards, and this is important, and this comes back to my previous point, is I'm not saying you have to constantly run marathons or constantly run half marathons, but if you are completely stopping, so if you're starting a journey and then completely stopping and doing nothing for a period of time, that's when we're getting into problems, and that's when we haven't really changed because habits are powerful things, both positive and negative habits are powerful things, and they can come and go easily, yeah, and you have to be conscious of that.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you find yourself running falling out of a running habit, you need to look at that.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: You really need to look at that and say, okay, what haven't I changed here?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and usually it is your behaviours because you're not running as much, so you're not getting the results you want, but usually it comes down to either skills first or then values, okay.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to look at those things.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, my value as a human being now is that health and fitness is important to me, and I need to maintain a certain level of activity every day in order to maintain my health, particularly as I age.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't necessarily involve running long distances because, as some of you know and you will know if you're a decent runner, running lots of miles isn't good for you.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't I wouldn't train for a marathon every 16 weeks because it takes a big toll on the body and a big toll on your time.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's something for me that you want to have a concentrated focus on, but that's a podcast for a different day.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm talking about here is the change process and understanding that your results, your behaviours, your skills, your values, and your identity are all interlinked, but they are different things.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you keep falling off the wagon, let's use that expression, or not maintaining a level of consistency, it's usually because you haven't changed at a deep level or you haven't adjusted your life around the things you need to do because you need to become a different person.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: When I became a father, uh, for the second time, particularly, is when it got a lot more challenging around running and trying to find the time to be able to do it.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd go for a run, say half past four in the morning, and people were saying, Oh, you're very motivated, you're very disciplined, and it was my answer was always well, that's the only time I can go.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to change that level.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what I want you to think about is I want you to think about change, and I want you to think about where you're at when you're listening to this.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to do something different, what is it you have to change?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because I would hope that changing your behaviours will change your results.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: That part of the puzzle is quite obvious.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, like when people say to me, and because I'm a weight loss coach primarily from my background, one thing that always makes me chuckle about people is they'll say things like, Well, what you what was your secret?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's your secret?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm gonna tell them something magical about the fact that I literally just ate less and moved more.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And back in 2005, there wasn't that much information around, so I just thought, well, I need to eat less and move more and make simple decisions that I can sustain.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Really key, really simple principles that have lasted the test of time, but people still think it's a secret because again, people like to give out information and make things complicated.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I knew I had to eat less and move more.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: That was the change in behaviours.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: What I had to change was the way I saw myself, I had to go deeper, and this comes back full circle to the over 35 runner thing, which is why I love doing this because I speak to so many people who say, I'm 40, I'm old, I'm 45, I'm old, I didn't think I could do this, I don't think this is possible.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, those can become self-fulfilling prophecies, and what you've got to bear in mind is a belief is just a thought you keep thinking.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when I changed back in 2005, the first thing that I did was I stopped seeing myself as the fat kid.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't want to be the fat kid anymore.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to change and you want to do something that you might think is impossible or beyond you, what you have to do is say, What am I willing to change deep down in my skills, my values, and ultimately, if you get there, your identity to maintain your levels of consistency, so it just does literally become who you are.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency is the key to everything, and that's another podcast for another day again.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it is the key to everything, but it comes from understanding the change process and understanding which component parts of it you have to address, and running is no different if you want to do faster distance, faster paces, bigger distances, you need to change, and it yes, of course, you need to run faster, as the old saying goes, but if you want to maintain that, you have to become a different person that approaches things in a different day, a different way.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's a brief introduction to the change process.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to keep these podcasts very short and punchy for now, just to make sure that you've got the information and you can digest it and use it.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a little in uh little insight into the change process.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to understand that and see, it's called the neurological levels of human beings.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if you Google that, you'll be able to find it.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you might see it in the format that I've mentioned there.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It might be in a pyramid as well, but I've seen it in a circle and it will show you that example.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's neurolinguistic programming, is what I mentioned earlier as well.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's what I mentioned.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to Google that, you'll see the component parts of that and how it helps with behavioral change.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget, as I finish this podcast today, to make sure that you hop on over to Instagram and follow me at 12 months to marathon.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can get in touch with me there as well if you want to have a conversation about any coaching or support.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: But if you follow me over there, you'll get loads of free content and tips.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to uh like and share, please, this podcast and subscribe and follow the podcast.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate your support.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's more good stuff to come, and I'll see you all very soon indeed.