Usain Bolt knows it. Mo Farah knows it. Even Forest Gump knows it.

What exactly do they know? More importantly, what difference will it make to your life?

"If you knew the power of your mind, you would never have another negative thought again"

"I am the captain of my fate, I am the master of my soul, because I have the power to control my thoughts"

These two quotes can be found in the epic "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. The key word here is to Think. That is the greatest tool running gives you. It gives you time, space and clarity to think.

The human body has evolved from running and it has evolved to run. We are one of the most efficient long distance runners in the world. As hunters, we would run down our prey into exhaustion and into overheating, mainly because we have an incredible cooling system always working for us. That's right, the buckets of sweat you experience in and out of the gym give us a tactical advantage over our prey.

When you are out pounding the pavement or hitting the treadmill, you will begin to learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible. Feeling every movement, drawing in air and converting it into energy to fuel your muscles into locomotion, finding your rhythm and listening to your inner monologue as you narrate your life.

As the run goes on you will find that you you will that all kinds of thoughts will begin to creep into your mind. The only difference between it happening on a run to happening anywhere else in your life, is that you will actually be able to change the thought process. You can choose what you want to believe, what you want to focus on and as you go through this process, you will feel your body start to react and align itself to your state of mind. This coupled with the phenomena known as the "Runners High" will leave you feeling more self assured, self confident.

It's time to take control of your body and your thoughts.

How has running helped you?