Endurance Sports Will Make You a Better Person

Seasoned endurance athletes are known for their Zen-like aura and ability to stay cool, calm, and collected under pressure—on and off the race course.

Where other people panic, the endurance athlete tends to be even-keeled and mobilized, and will work toward a solution. How do we know? Science says so. Turns out the more you push your physical limits, the more you improve your psychological ones.

Endurance sports cultivate a growth mindset, or an overall perspective that “recognizes the natural human capacity to grow during times of stress,” says Kelly McGonigal, a world-renowned health psychologist whose forthcoming book, The Upside of Stress, challenges the prevailing wisdom on the topic. Instead of seeing stress as something negative and to be avoided, McGonigal says that we should learn how to embrace it.

“The most toxic thing about stress is not stress in and of itself,” she says, “but rather, stress avoidance and the subsequent angst and rumination of always trying to avoid stress.” In contrast, she says, if “you build the inner resources to deal with stress, confronting it can lead to personal growth and add meaning to your life.”

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