Running And The Law: Your Left Brain Is Out To Get You
by Ryan McKeen
The brain has two hemispheres that are separate and don’t interconnect. The logical left brain does our business activities, trying to steer us into pleasure and away from discomfort. The creative and intuitive right side is an unlimited source of solutions to problems and connects us to hidden strengths.
As we accumulate stress, the left brains sends us a stream of messages telling us to “slow down” and “this isn’t your day” and even philosophical messages like “why are you doing this.” – Jeff Galloway
Your left brain doesn’t want you to run 26.2 miles. It doesn’t want you to run 13.1. It doesn’t want you to run a 10k. It doesn’t even want to do a 5k. Your left brain is perfectly content watching football.
If you can’t overcome the negative messages generated by the left side of your brain than you can’t run. It’s that simple.
Distance runners will often say that it’s all mental. Many marathon runners will say that the hardest part of a marathon is overcoming the mental challenges.
The practice of law is the same way. Preparing for a trial is a lot like distance running. It’s hard and time consuming. And sometimes my left brain would rather be watching football.
The key is to first identify the noise being generated by the left side of the brain and then destroy it.
How?
Think positive thoughts. When I run and I’m starting to feel it I think the word “fly” or “glide”. Doing so activates the right side of my brain. And my creativity overcomes the pain.
The point is that while practicing law you’ve got to figure out how you’re trying to defeat yourself and how to overcome it. I use different go to motivational phrases that I use while running in my everyday practice.
If you see me in court and hear me mumble “I got this”. You’ll know why.
