Why keep runninig?

I read somewhere that when you are exercising, and your mind is telling you that you are tired, or that you can't go any further, if you are able to continue through that point, you will burn the most calories and achieve the best results. That once you push through the desire to stop working, you will realize you can continue much further than you thought you could. The idea that continuing to try when you feel like you want to quit the most seems so counter-intuitive to me. In the rare times I've attempted to go for a run, I have always thought; "Well, my body is telling me that it is tired, so I had better listen to it and start walking or turn back home."

Apparently, this strategy will not get you or your body to become stronger. According to science, when you push through your internal desires to give up, you are able to become stronger and achieve greater physical feats.

I wonder if the same is true when it comes to non-physical challenges. In looking back over the past year, I am wondering if through trials where I wanted to give up but wasn't able to, if those experiences have caused me to grow and now perform at a higher level. I was talking with a friend the other day who told me; " I just never thought becoming a parent would change my life so drastically." And as I'm growing up, I'm realizing that the decisions we make are getting bigger, and often times they lead us to places where we are continually challenged, where we want to give up, but where we are hopefully developing and improving because we choose to push through the discomfort. We continue to keep working, talking, trying, even though we really don't want to, and even though quitting seems like it would be a lot easier.

I hope I'm on to something and that the challenges that are put before us, the ones that seem too hard, undeserved, and just plain gnarly, are all part of bringing us to a higher level of ourselves. Even if they're not, I'm a bit of a believer in using delusion to motivate you to achieve a goal. Even if the reward you imagine isn't the one you receive, at least you will have reached your goal!