From December to March, I was training for the Rome marathon.
This involved 6-7 days of running per week, sometimes clocking up to 100km.
Everything was going according to plan, and I was on track to achieve my first sub 3-hour time.
Then, a week before, I injured my knee — which meant I couldn’t run on the day.
Initially, I was devastated.
But as time passed, I remembered an insight Eric Zimmer shared during an interview for our upcoming Holistic Coaching Summit.
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Human beings are meaning-making machines.
When something happens, we automatically (and unconsciously) assign meaning to it — usually based on programming we received in childhood.
It’s a default response that then impacts our emotional state.
The good news is that we can take manual control of our meaning-making-machinery and consciously choose what events mean to us.
Eric helps his clients do this using 3 simple questions:
1. What am I making this mean (automatically)?
2. What else might it mean?
3. What is the most useful possible interpretation of what this could mean?
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In my case, my initial response was self flagellation for running when my knee was already tight.
“How could I be so stupid to take that risk one week before the race?”
However, when I remembered Eric’s questions, I asked:
What else might this mean?
Several things came to mind, but one in particular stood out…
This could be an opportunity to redefine my relationship with running.
I initially got into it as a way to get out into nature and explore new landscapes on weekends.
Back then, I wasn’t worried about pace. My focus was on enjoying the scenery and putting one foot in front of the other — sort of like a moving meditation that would clear my head and reset me for the week ahead.
However, things started to change after I bought my first garmin watch and signed up for Strava.
Gradually, I became excessively focused on stats like pace, time, and the distance I was covering each week.
And before I knew it, running was no longer about being in the moment and exploring in nature.
Now, it was more about what my Strava stats would show after I’d finished.
So I kept training harder and my stats kept improving — but I was destroying my body in the process, as one injury followed the next.
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Therefore, when I contemplated Eric’s 3rd question:
What is the most useful interpretation of what this injury could mean?
I realised this was the perfect wake up call to consciously redefine my relationship with running.
If it hadn’t happened, I would have kept going as normal, and probably done long-term damage.
However, thanks to this injury, I can now start running again in a way that is lifegiving, enjoyable, and sustainable.
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If you’re going through something challenging, give Eric’s three questions a try:
1. ) What am I making this mean (automatically)?
2.) What else might it mean?
3.) What is the most useful possible interpretation of what this could mean?
