Absolutely, mental discipline and physical discipline are inter-related. If you give up easily mentally, than it doesn't matter how strong your body is. You will give up physically as well.
Give someone a complex mental problem to work on and see how quickly they give up trying. A person who can spend 1 hour working on it with intense focus is going to be much more easily trainable to run, for example, compared to someone who can't "command their mind" to focus on a complex problem for 2 minutes.
Persistance in mental thinking and physical effort typically mirror each other.
I think it all has to do with getting comfortable with persisting through temporary discomfort - whether it be mental or physical.
LoA requires intense mental shifts and belief pattern re-adjustments which can be very difficult to go through mentally. Something as simple as changing one global belief you've had for 20+ years can cause excruciating mental pain, having to re-evaluate everying in your life.
Most people would rather stay where they're at, because it's comfy, than to change their habits of thinking EVEN IF the changes are good for them.
If you haven't already, you might want to check out Nike's iPod plugin system that tracks your runs by putting a small sensor in your shoe and attachign it to your iPod Nano. You then download the data to their website so you can track your runs and setup friendly challenges with your friends or just set a goal for yourself to achieve. It's a cool motivating tool I used for running in the past. |