Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / Mint-on-sunday/  The pursuit of mastery through the joy of running
BackBack

The pursuit of mastery through the joy of running

To live the good life, it is imperative that we choose to give up dabbling, obsessing and hacking and spend time on mastering instead

Photo: Pradeep Gaur/MintPremium
Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

Allow me to file a caveat first. This isn’t intended to be a piece on running. But to use running as a metaphor for all that is wrong with a lot of us. That we chase the wrong objectives and the wrong metrics when what we ought to be in pursuit of is mastery, where we enjoy the journey as much as the outcome. But I intend to talk about running because nothing exemplifies it better in my case.

To put that in perspective, think of Picasso, who once famously said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

These words came back to me the other day as I looked at the weighing scale and my personal website at once. The irony stared me on the face. On the one hand, my so-called passion includes running and a section is devoted to running and my various experiments with it. I know all the theories that consume this so-called passion of mine. I possess all the latest gear and am up to speed when it comes to the latest technologies and sciences on running.

But if you were to meet me in person, I am a slobbering mass of jelly. Truth is, I rarely run. I cannot look myself in the face and call myself a runner. At the end of the day, I can’t lie to myself.

So, why do I fail as often as I do when I take to running every so often in spite of claiming to be in love with it?

Each time I introspect, I turn to my friend Rajat Chauhan, a sport medicine specialist and a columnist for Mint, for help. To his credit, he has never given up on me—not once. His passion to get people moving has always compelled him to create a customized programme for people like me that we may get started once again. But the likes of me are the ones who have let him down. So, what gives?

A few days ago, I turned to him yet again with my old spiel: “Doc, I need to get back to running." But this time around, he went about it in a different way. Instead of creating a programme for me right away, he connected me to a friend of his—Anurag Mishra. This, because Dr Chauhan thought I ought to first understand who I am exactly, what are my motivations and where am I coming from.

Dr Mishra and I hit it off right away. He is a psychiatrist attached to Fortis Healthcare and is the founder of Livonics Infotech. Based out of New Delhi, over the past couple of days, we have had a few Skype-based sessions so we may talk and understand each other. After a few sessions together, he pointed me to a lovely book—Mastery by George Leonard. It started to put things in perspective for me on why it is that I like running.

“Much has been made of the blazing sprint-speed of the cheetah, the prodigious leaps of the kangaroo, the underwater skills of the dolphin, and the gymnastic prowess of the chimpanzee. But the fact of the matter is that no animal can match the human animal in all-around athletic ability. If we were to hold a mammal decathlon with events in sprinting, endurance running, long jumping, high jumping, swimming, deep diving, gymnastics, striking, kicking, and burrowing, other animals would win most of the individual events. But a well-trained human would come up with the best overall score. In one event—endurance running—the human would out-perform all other animals of comparable size, as well as some quite a bit larger."

Clearly, there is a good reason for me to take up running and stay at it. Then, why is it that I give up? Between Dr Mishra and Mastery, a few pointers came my way.

People can be divided into three kinds. The Dabbler, the Obsessive and the Hacker. What category do you fall into?

The Dabbler

This is the kind of person, Leonard defines, who, “approaches each new sport, career opportunity, or relationship with enormous enthusiasm. He or she loves the rituals involved in getting started, the spiffy equipment, the lingo, the shine of newness. The Dabbler might think of himself as an adventurer, a connoisseur of novelty, but he’s probably closer to being what Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, calls the puer aeternus, the eternal kid. Though partners change, he or she stays just the same."

The Obsessive

“The Obsessive is a bottom-line type of person, not one to settle for second best. He or she knows results are what count, and it doesn’t matter how you get them, just so you get them fast. The Obsessive starts out by making robust progress. His first spurt is just what he expected. But when he inevitably regresses and finds himself on a plateau, he simply won’t accept it. He redoubles his effort. He pushes himself mercilessly. He refuses to accept his boss’ and colleagues’ counsel of moderation.

“Somehow, in whatever he is doing, the Obsessive manages for a while to keep making brief spurts of upward progress, followed by sharp declines—a jagged ride toward a sure fall. When the fall occurs, the Obsessive is likely to get hurt. And so are friends, colleagues, stockholders, and lovers."

The Hacker

“The Hacker has a different attitude. After sort of getting the hang of a thing, he or she is willing to stay on the plateau indefinitely. He doesn’t mind skipping stages essential to the development of mastery if he can just go out and hack around with fellow hackers. He’s the physician or teacher who doesn’t bother going to professional meetings, the tennis player who develops a solid forehand and figures he can make do with a ragged backhand. At work, he does only enough to get by, leaves on time or early, takes every break, talks instead of doing his job, and wonders why he doesn’t get promoted."

What’s the problem?

Dr. Mishra posits that all of these approaches are wrong. He pushed me to think where I fit in. When I stepped back and looked at myself, I fit into Obsessive. I am focused on the bottom line and results. It is the outcome that matters to me. I need the peaks. I need the highs. I cannot deal with the plateaus that follow the peaks. I need the adrenaline rush.

That is why when I set my eyes on a long-distance run, I train for it with an objective in mind, that I will complete a certain distance in a certain time. Once that is achieved, I am done and dusted with. I have proven my point to myself and everybody else I have chosen to speak about it to. There is no long-term objective.

Objective accomplished, I say “over and out". The outcome is a lack of fulfilment for me in the long run and unhappiness for those close to me because they feel used. But what if my objective were to be mastery? What if I were to shift perspective? What is that supposed to mean?

The Master

Mastery involves a kind of person who takes joy not in the objective, but in the journey.

When you run, for instance, every minute demands your body moves 180 times. That means you focus your mind to the exclusion of everything else to getting those 180 moves right. You think about nothing else. Not of the problems on hand you have to deal with. You are detached from everything save the 180 moves you have to make every minute. The joy lies in the journey.

This can be a frustrating experience. It insists that you stay on a plateau before you move to the next level.

But Roger Federer knows that. That is why he can play the kind of game that only he can. Watch this video closely to see what this man is capable of.

Or ask yourself how Zakir Hussain can enthrall people with the tabla the way only he can?

As that line from The Little Prince, a profound book ostensibly written for children, but full of philosophical wisdom, goes, “What is essential to the heart is invisible to the eye."

When out of the public eye, these men practice and practice, for hours on end. This is part of their journey. They take pride in it. They soak in every moment of it. What you and I get to see are only the outcomes.

It is only pertinent then that you ask me why I want to run. For that matter, isn’t it good enough that I stay focused on getting better and better at what I do? In this case, running a tight ship that is my business and writing. Between Dr. Chauhan and Dr. Mishra, they helped put it in perspective for me.

1. When you run, you extend yourself. Most people don’t run. They shuffle along. Because when you actually run, for a certain distance, at a certain time, under certain environmental and psychological conditions, you are extending yourself. This is when you encounter fear. The intent is to combat those fears.

2. And to combat those fears, you practise so that you may run faster—because faster runners pay attention to what they are doing. In turn, this facilitates the habit of paying attention that can be extended to all other aspects of life.

3. To that extent, running is a way of changing the self.

Allow me to reiterate: Running is a metaphor. But something I am passionate about. It’s just that I was doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Beginning next month, on the back of guidance by Dr. Chauhan’s experiences with running and Dr. Mishra’s understanding of how the mind works, I, along with a closed group of eight to 10 people interested in running, intend to experiment what the sustained practice of running can do to improve our lives—the outcomes of which I hope to share with you in the months to come.

Charles Assisi is co-founder of Founding Fuel Publishing.

His Twitter handle is @c_assisi

Comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 14 May 2016, 11:29 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App