This time of year there’s a lot of talk about resolutions. In our, yes, notoriously self-centered culture the most common resolution is improved fitness. Enter the ad in this week’s New York magazine Jan. 20-27 for the overnight paperback bestseller, THE POWER OF HABIT http://bit.ly/1eKE2c4, that boils down to sticking-to-it-ness – three simple stages: Pick the cue; Choose a reward; Execute the routine.Makes sense, no? I get the cue and routine. But reward? All too difficult to isolate for most good-intentioned people who are clamoring to embrace sticking-to-it-ness and get into better shape.
That’s because, by my lights, in a typical middle-class life we are showered with rewards, i.e., the smartphone, game apps, Instagram, Facebook, a myriad instant gratifications available to all with a mobile platform. And the apps only get more and more seductive with each passing day.
I was reminded of this during a morning with Thurber this week (Jan. 15). Two joggers were slowing near me in Prospect Park, and on cue, as they came to a stop, both pulled out their mobile devices and stared at them. I thought a running app, something that would parse the data of that day’s run. Or maybe some other reward that had little to do with their just-completed exercise.
I’ve been running on a reward principle for thirty-five years. In the early days there was no such thing as a wearable music player, much less sophisticated running apps, so what served as a reward upon returning home after a run was a favorite song or two on the record player, if it was in the evening, a mug of cold ale.
I still run on this principle, with the idea true rewards are only possible if there is a clear separation, that the routine itself does not involve a reward. (Running with headphones, say.) That the routine is not some negative experience that needs the reward as compensation, but a positive one that is lived deeper with the addition of a simple reward.
Next: Running for Your Life: The Next Race
