Some people like running. I imagine a small percentage of them like running in the rain. I doubt many of even those people like running in the winter in the rain, and yet that is what I did today.

Below is a picture that I took of the path along the East River that I mentioned in my post about the catching of the dog the other day.

It shows how many people like running in the winter in the rain.

Once I finished my run, I thought about whether I enjoyed running in the winter in the rain. My first thought was no, of course not. I think that was because that would be anyone normal's normal answer, but I thought about it some more. I kind of did. I enjoyed it because I knew no one else was doing it and because I was, because I believe in the running schedule I am following right now, because my legs felt good because yesterday was a rest day, and because I enjoyed the podcast with Elon Musk that I listened to during the run. As much as any other reason, I think I enjoyed it because I knew I would be glad that I did it.

I have long thought about the difference between doing things I will enjoy in the moment versus doing things I will be glad I did later. Stated differently, I think about the difference between living life to enjoy every moment versus living life to be glad about what I have done with it all the way through. Ideally, the two are one in the same, but often times, they are not. I realized today that we can do typically unenjoyable things that we think we will be glad we did later, and that we can actually enjoy them because we know we will be glad we did them later.

This may be easily intuitive to some. It may even make me sound as foolish as I must have looked running in the winter in the rain today. Regardless, I think it is meaningful. I believe it is good to do things that we are confident we will be glad we did later, and to enjoy those things, for that reason alone or otherwise.