Work-Run Balance

You can get better at your job by running. Running doesn't just help you physically. Running has clear mental and emotional benefits which are relevant to your everyday work:

  • Focus: Running teaches us to complete a goal, whether distance, time, or even just to finish. Speed workouts and races often require you to vary intensity over the course of a run, requiring a deeper level of focus. That mental toughness to push through pain or fatigue will help you navigate complexity in your job and succeed in completing any project. 

  • Creativity: Running encourages you to constantly think of new strategies and workouts but more importantly, it helps your brain get into an expansive or "alpha" state to increase reflective and creative thinking and solve any problem.

  • Confidence: Running in a race, whether 5k or ultramarathon, gives you confidence, a valuable skill to use for networking, project management, and presentations. It turns out that confidence is one of the most important predictors of running performance as well as promotion likelihood.

  • Discipline: Running faster requires good discipline to know your paces and when to push or hold back. Training for a longer race like a marathon will require discipline to follow a training program and not overdo it.

  • Stress relief: Running increases your energy and productivity while decreasing anxiety and stress. Channel these feelings into your next run!

Berlin Marathon, 2014

Berlin Marathon, 2014