This is optimal finance daily episode 1285 pushing yourself by Steve Pavlina of Steve Pavlina.com

and hi again I'm Dan I am here every single day reading to you from the best personal finance blogs on the web.

Hope you're having a great week so far and if you enjoy this idea of reading blogs to you

for free it'd be great if you could share this podcast with somebody you you can email or text someone a link to old

podcast.com or even better if you're able to subscribe them to the podcast right there on their phone.

That would mean a lot to us and helps this podcast continue to thrive.

For now, let's hear today's post from Steve as we start optimizing your life. Pushing yourself by Steve Pavlina of Steve Pavlina.com.

This morning I went for my usual run starting before dawn.

Lately I've been going for 45 to 50 minutes.

This time, however, I was listening to the audio book Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins.

After hearing the part about his 100-mile run and how he had to push himself to get through it, I felt

like I should push myself more as well, so I kept running for an hour and then 75 minutes

and finally decided to stop at 93 minutes. This was hill running since my neighborhood is very

hilly so almost all the running I do nearby is either uphill or downhill.

Normally after a morning run I feel pretty good. It gives me a sense of accomplishment early in the day and

gets me off to a good start. I see a strong link between focus and productivity and cardio

exercise. No matter how much I've experimented with other types of exercise, nothing takes

the place of cardio in terms of the mental and emotional benefits.

This morning, instead of feeling a modest sense of accomplishment, it felt way better to run twice as far as I normally would.

I've done many 90 minute runs before, but not lately and not this year.

It felt so nice to stretch beyond what I'm used to.

It wasn't physically difficult, but I had to nudge myself mentally to go beyond what feels normal to me now.

...