A Journey Starts With a Single Step with Ray Boyd
The hardest thing to change most often is not our body, but our mindset. If our mind changes, the body follows suit, and today’s guest will show you how!
In today’s episode, David is joined by Ray Boyd, West Australian record holder and Australian representative at the World Cross Country and World Athletics Championships.
Growing up, he was shaping up to be an Architectural Draftsman, like his father, but he was given the freedom to choose his own path, so from 1988 he moved into teaching instead and by 2004 took on the role of Principal with the Western Australian State Public School System.
Even nowadays he still prefers the classroom to administrative office hours, but finds enjoyment in his work nonetheless. Talking about earlier athletic career, his notable highlights were the qualifiers for the Olympics in 1996 and 2000. And the most impressive performance of his running career was during the Chicago Marathon which he completed with a time of 2:13:26 in 1999.
One notable distinction for him is in the atmosphere and the way people support runners in Australia versus America. While the cities like New York and Boston completely stop for this huge event, with a tremendous amount of people supporting it, the atmosphere in Sydney is far from it.
After his achievements, stepping down from elite level sporting, and focusing more on his profession and family came naturally to Ray. And now, at 52, although his body adjusted, and his habits reshaped, his mindset was left unchanged - a problem that took a while to resolve.
“Your brain knows the heights of what you were able to do in the past, and forces your body to do it now, but your body can’t do this, the brain is trying to get you going, but the body is saying: We can’t do this, what are you talking about?”
The competitive life in professional running is very short, and for that reason, as David and Ray further discuss, it’s very important to have a fallback in some regard, a profession that will serve as the main source of income. And for Ray, it was great to break things up like that, two completely different worlds he could step into - professional life gave him a break from running and running gave him a break from professional life.
Freedom from pressure is what allows him to now truly enjoy running. That way you soak up every moment and actually experience the environment around yourself on every run. Just going at your own pace and not worrying about lap times or fighting for a position is just a much healthier and happier way of going on about life as well.
Ray’s challenge for YOU over the coming week: “Just get out and set yourself a goal, work out how you’re gonna do it and get out and actually do it. The body adapts very quickly, while the mindset is the hardest thing to change. Every journey starts with a single step and it’s a journey that might change the world for you.”
