There’s a 7 mile trail loop by our home that I’ve been running for years. It’s one of the many routes I run in the area as I am lucky enough to have miles and miles of trails right outside my door.

This particular loop is a bit of a nasty one. It’s got 5 kick-ass hills along its course. Some steep, some long, some long and steep – real fun stuff! I usually walk portions of each hill – as there’s no real reason to over exert on a maintenance run – so walking these hills is pretty much the norm.

In fact, I think I’ve only ran the entire loop less than a handful of times.

Today was one of those times.

It wasn’t because I was out to prove I could still do it. It wasn’t because I am feeling particularly fit – in fact quite the opposite is true right now. Coming off a long vacation, I’ve had about 2 weeks of pretty minimal effort.

In fact I wasn’t even going to run the 7 miler at all.

But once I got out there, I knew I needed a bit of a kick in the pants, so I decided pretty early on to go the 7. At the first hill I just decided to run it – like I said – I needed a good kick in the pants.

And that’s when …  I decided.

I decided I was going to run the whole loop today.

And my mindset completely flipped. Because I simply decided.

Sometimes it’s just that easy.

We decide.

Then we do.

I wasn’t going to try to run the entire loop, I wasn’t going to run the 2nd hill and see what happens.

No.

I flipped the switch and decided. And I knew!

It’s days like today that just reinforce the power of the mind. The power of the right mindset.

The power of deciding.

What are you going to decide to do today?