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New runners! Would-be runners!

If you’re flirting with a running program, but resisting because you believe you’re NOT a runner, or NOT someone who’s fit and healthy – like maybe a free wheelin’ writer, or a smoker, or a lazy sack o’ whatever – take a look at Professor Carolyn Dweck’s book Mindset. Same goes for those who are trying to lose weight, or develop their creative side, or…. almost anything that involves exploring new territory.

Mindset argues that the most successful people out there share a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. People with a growth mindset believe that with hard work and persistence, they can “grow” – learn new skills, improve upon weaknesses, move into new areas of activity and intellect. “Fixies” meanwhile think they’re stuck with what they’ve got and may as well skip the work because they’re never going to get much better. And so they don’t. You may have heard this idea in Malcolm Gladwell’s recent OUTLIERS , which incorporated Dweck’s work.

Adopt a growth mindset and you’ll find it easier to “believe” that you too can be a runner. And if you believe you’re a runner, you’re more likely to act that way.

How to adopt a growth mindset? Slap yourself silly with positive self talk. Tell yourself, “I will improve,” “This will get easier – IF I do it,” “I can run as fast as anybody, with some work.”

Don’t stop at running – silence fixie mutterings to help move yourself in any direction you want to go. A fixed mindset is TERRIBLE for creative work.

Ever put your foot on the floor to keep the room from spinning when you’re drunk? That’s what my rumpled, yellow-eyed black cat has been for me. Through three major breakups, umpteen minor ones, several jobs and a thousand different moods (both mine and his, in fact), he’s never missed a meal.

If I move to New York, my furry whale on white paws will probably stay in Los Angeles.

To be without him is to squarely face the reality of change. Thankfully, running seems to offer a new through line.

“The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.” – W.E.B. Du Bois

What or who helps you deal with change and “letting it all flow through”?