Mental Hurdles That Keep People from Starting to Run

When you want to start running, there are all sorts of mental hurdles that get in your way.

Everything from this is physically daunting, to I don’t want to look stupid, to I feel utterly inferior.

Using Ultra Marathons to Make Your Run Look Easy

“This is really difficult. What’s gonna make me stick with it?”

One of the tricks I’ve learned with the physically daunting aspect of running is to compare the run I’m doing to an ultra-marathon.

Then I look at my little 3K run through the woods and go, oh, come on—it’s not 100 miles. I can do this.

I’m not comparing myself to them and saying I’m not as good. I’m comparing myself and saying I don’t have to run as far as that.

All of a sudden, my run looks very small and very doable compared to a marathon, rim-to-rim at the Grand Canyon, or a six-hour race.

Leaning Into the Beginner Character Role

Then there’s the part about not wanting to look like a rookie who doesn’t know what he’s doing—I lean into it.

Don’t we kind of like the character in a movie who doesn’t know what they’re doing? They’re just beginning, they make all the stupid rookie mistakes, but they push through anyway and eventually get good.

Isn’t every story based on that?

Lean into it.

Don’t mind looking naive or foolish—it’s the price of entry to learning something new.

I’m a person who is always chasing new learning experiences—physical and intellectual. So I’m often at the beginner stage in some arena of my life.

And yeah, I still look around and think, look at all these people who know what they’re doing.

I’ll feel that sense of inferiority—like, I am so dumb compared to these people, and I don’t want to look stupid in front of them. But instead of stopping me, it motivates me to learn from them.

And then I write about my blunders, because I know there are so many other beginners out there who just want to know: I’m not alone.

Everybody felt like this when they started. It’s just that most people we encounter aren’t beginners anymore.

Addressing Deeper Feelings of Inferiority

But some people struggle with deeper self-consciousness—inferiority and shame—not just when they’re learning something new like running, but in every sphere of life.

It shows up everywhere.

At a potluck—is my dish good enough? Did I bring enough? If something goes wrong, will it be my fault?

It’s not just running. It’s everything.

And so you can take that deep-seated inferiority and use something like learning to run as a way to build a new habit: a more comfortable sense of self-respect.

Understanding the Spectrum from Inferiority to Superiority

Here’s the thing—you want to hit between the goalposts.

On one side, there’s feeling utterly inferior. On the other, there’s superiority.

And in every group of runners—every race, every fun run—there’s someone who feels tragically inferior everywhere they show up in life. And there’s someone who feels superior everywhere they show up.

Questioning Whether You’re Actually Inferior

When you feel inferior… are you?

Oh, I know what you’ll say—yes, I am.

But are you actually?

Do your friends get tired of telling you that what you’re doing is actually pretty good? That you’re doing better than you think?

Are you actually inferior? Not likely.

And just like that, the “superior” person isn’t necessarily superior either. They may act like it. They may even choose environments where they appear superior. But part of that is avoiding spaces where they wouldn’t be.

Finding the Humble Middle Way

Most people exist somewhere between those two posts.

And at some point, you drop those labels altogether.

What do you call the people in the middle?

They’re comfortable. They’re humble.

They know they’re not the most skilled person there—and they’re okay with that.

Or they know they actually are the most skilled—and they’re still humble about it. They help others who are behind them, even if it means those people eventually surpass them.

That’s the place to aim for.

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Mat Coker is a trail running photographer based in Ontario, Canada.