MAINTAINING A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Maintaining a positive attitude is essential to achieving your goals, not only in running, but in life in general. It’s important to have belief in your abilities and to surround yourself with inspirational characters who can motivate you towards success. Fraser Clyne explains why these factors are important.

I was recently asked what three pieces of advice I’d offer to either newcomers to the distance running scene or experienced athletes seeking to reach elite level. There’s all sorts of suggestions I could have made about training and racing, but the ones I chose were about the importance of living in a totally positive environment.

So, my advice is the same whether you are just starting out as a new runner or whether you are striving for the very top. It is:

1) Surround yourself with positive people all the time…they will help motivate you to achieve whatever you want to get from your running. There is no place for negativity.

2) Always have dreams/goals/targets. Work towards achieving these, step by step, and never let anyone tell you anything is impossible.

3) Listen to others, but believe in yourself. It’s amazing what you can do if you are willing to learn, to experiment and to keep pushing your own personal boundaries.

And I had a fourth one: Always enjoy it, make it fun. If you enjoy it, you’ll keep doing it forever.

We can also be motivated and inspired by high profile people we don’t necessarily know. Watching top athletes and studying how they go about achieving their goals can be tremendously inspiring. Runners today can watch and be inspired by the likes of Mo Farah and Jo Pavey who are tremendous role models for us all. You can’t help but be motivated and excited by observing these great athletes in action.  We perhaps cannot hope to emulate their levels of performance but we can match their mental strength and determination and apply these qualities to help us achieve our own goals of being the best we can be.

It reminds me of something the great tennis player Martina Navratilova said a few years ago: “You don’t have to be a great athlete to have the mentality of a great athlete.” It’s so true. We can all strive to be the best we can be by preparing as best we can and giving ourselves the best possible chance of achieving our goals and realising our dreams. The perfect starting point is to keep being positive, to surround yourself with positive people and to learn from them. If you do that, all aspects of your life as a runner will improve and it will be increasingly enjoyable. And the more enjoyable anything becomes, the more you’ll want to keep doing it.

Fraser Clyne is a former international marathon runner with a best time of 2 hours 11 minutes 50 seconds. Five times Scottish marathon champion, he competed in the 1986 Commonwealth Games marathon, finishing 10th.He has competed all over the world in 3K, 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon races. He has run 22 sub-2 hour 20 minute marathons and is a sports journalist.