[zeekaran]

> The reward for me is so significant that getting myself running requires 0 mental effort or preparation.

Is there a drug I can take to achieve this? This sounds like a superpower to me. I've tried to start running so many times.

[vladvasiliu]

As others have said, it's not exactly a drug, you "just" need to push yourself to do it regularly for a while. In my case, it's a few weeks.

What I've found happens is that I actually get used to it, and if for some reason have to skip a session, I'll get the feeling that something's missing because I actually "felt like" doing it.

Of course, this doesn work 100% of the time. Occasionally, I really, really, don't want to pump that iron or go for a run. But having developed the habit, it's actually much easier to push through the "don't feel like it" sensation and get my ass out there, "'cause I have to do it". And I'm usually very happy I did when I get back home.

[brailsafe]

You just need to do something enough times that you can identify a positive feedback cycle, and then go from there. Don't expect to wake up one day and consistently start running every morning, that's a really absurd bar to try and hit out the gate. Just try and do it 3 times a week whenever you can and build on that. The overwhelming majority of people who've come to rigid early routine have come to that point either out of necessity, optimization, iteration, or habit, and what clicks is going to vary between people.

People who don't go to the gym at all think they'll sign up at the beginning of the year and from zero make a life-changing routine change by the next week; gyms know this and take advantage of it to the point that many would go out of business if not for people failing to motivate themselves in that first month enough to start doing one of the hardest daily activities first thing in the morning 5 times a week.

If you don't like running, just do something else, sometimes; running sucks if it sucks and doesn't if it doesn't. Optimize if the nature of the activity seems like something you can find doable/enjoyable/rewarding.

[swatcoder]

It gets much easier to do regularly once you do it regularly, and it also gets easier when you learn how to control your pace and effort.

It's hard (for a while) when you're first starting because most of your runs are pushing your limits -- intentionally or unintentionally -- and you can't help associating the runs with having to push and burn out.

Once you practice for a while (and take the effort to learn pacing), the bulk of your runs feel easy and refreshing and so you want to go do them. And the hard runs that you choose to run for limit-pushing become satisfying because you know you're in control of them and can often see progress in your PR's for pace or whatever.

In other words: you just have to stick with it and it mostly happens on its own. (Unless you're just a type-A person and can't learn to pace yourself)