Pondering on motivation to behave in ways or perform actions that are deemed necessary or normal by society but feel distinctly unpleasant. For some, including me, exercise is a good example.

For instance, there is nothing I find less appealing than running 100 metres repeatedly during a Physical Education class in 35 degrees Celcius and yet as a child, this is exactly what we were made to do and it was deemed necessary, healthy even. It’s almost not worth the effort, in words or in angst, to think or write about how futile that all seems nows. Suffice to say, running is not my favoured form of exercise.

I think that most people prefer to partake of healthy activities that they enjoy. Perhaps someone should try and work that angle into anti-obesity or national health campaigns. We should ask ourselves why exercise is so unpleasant and why so many of us avoid doing it.

Thinking back to running the 100 metres and always coming last… Did it never occur to our curriculum designers that running around in 35 degrees is just too much like hard work? I’m a firm believer that running is a survival strategy. Running probably figured highly in the exit planning of primitive man and ranks near the top for most other animals. So, you say- it makes sense to run [in the context of exercise] to practice and to better the odds of surviving an attack by prey. Well friend, I say that in all honesty, with water rationed during the hot dry season, this H. sapien would have been sitting somewhere cool, out of the sun, waiting for the temperature to drop before foraging or hunting animals. The animals were probably following the exact same pattern of activity and behaviour.

PRACTISING RUNNING AWAY?! What a waste of time and energy.