I have no idea if this is true, but I recently heard Derek Sivers say that if you ask someone who doesn’t like to run why they do not like it, they will explain in detail how complicated the process is. You have to change into exercise clothes. Find socks and shoes. Put them on. How are you going to carry your phone? What will you listen to? Oh, the weather’s crummy so you will be miserable. And then after the run, you feel gross and sweaty. Then you have to shower. It’s very complicated.

But someone who likes running? How do they describe it?

It’s simple. You just run.

I suspect people who don’t like running come up with a lot of different reasons for it as well, but the speaker’s next point was an interesting one. If we take it as true that we do not like to do things we find complicated, then how can we simplify the things we don’t like to do?

His example was running 100 miles. The act is simple. You just keep running, one foot after the next, until you are done. It doesn’t mean it is easy. But if we can simplify our challenges, perhaps we can make them more manageable.