Do it when you’ve never done it before: Passion.

Do it when you know you can: Consistency.

Do it when you don’t want to: Committment.

Do it when you’re not sure you can: Faith.

Do it when you know, in your heart of heart you can’t, but you do it anyway: Pure Inspiration!

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Five levels of Nike…

Not only did I remember tonight’s inspiration, but it seemed worthy of sharing:

“The true measure of a man’s effort is not that he has reached his destination, nor even how long it took him to get there, but rather how many times he wanted to give up along the way.”

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A measure of effort

Physically, running can be a funny sport.  Some days you feel terrible, then go out and have a great run.  Other days you’re on top of the world, and fight just to keep going.  Unfortunately tonight, the run quickly devolved into the second category.  I greatly suspect my lunch (late and heavy on the pasta) was a prime culprit.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

It didn’t take long before I started thinking about only running one loop.  It’s funny how it creeps up on you, isn’t it?  Sure you’re struggling, but you came out with a goal regardless.  Then out of the blue comes the first unbidden thought: “what would be so bad about just running one loop?”  From there it’s like a good cop, bad cop scene where you literally argue with yourself; one side taking the position that there’s no shame in quitting if you don’t “have your stuff” (and you can always do extra in the coming days), the other side sticking to toughing it out and saving some self-esteem.

The issue, as we all know, is that history tells us that we don’t make up for it in the coming days.  While we may struggle to get through the task we’ve set before ourselves from time to time and not complete it as quickly or as eloquently as we had hoped, the fact that we did complete it greatly helps balance out that minor disappointment.

So this back and forth in my mind went on for the better part of the first run, and I still didn’t know what I was going to do as I rounded the final turn and headed up the last hill toward the parking lot.

But I kept going

I’ll jump to the end of the story and tell you that I kept going and did my second loop.  The satisfaction in doing what I said I was going to do absolutely made up for the crappy, sub-par run.  And you know what?  The second loop was far better than the first.  Sometimes if you just stick with it long enough, things work themselves out.

So what trick did I employ to talk myself into running the second loop?  What incentive did I use?  What logical argument won out over the bad cop?  Actually, I don’t really feel like I did anything, it all kind of took care of itself.  What I can tell you is that it was really the opposite of all those questions I just asked:

I simply stopped trying to talk myself out of it.

That’s right – as I rounded that last corner and headed up the hill toward the trailhead, without even thinking of it I just kind of stopped trying to convince myself that I shouldn’t continue.  I let the goal of running two loops settle back into my subconscious, and my active mind just re-occupied with random thoughts of the trail and the day.  After that everything took care of itself.  As I came up on the trailhead, I just kept running without thinking and continued on to my second loop.

Sure, it’s not always that simple, but…

…then again, maybe it is.  We spend so much time and effort trying to look for ways to do what we say we are going to do, that sometimes I think we end up spending more effort than if we would just keep running in the first place.  Plus, we all know what it feels like when we don’t do what we say we’re going to.  It feels pretty crappy, right?  But following through and staying true to our goals feels pretty awesome right?  So even though my run tonight didn’t satisfy my evening goal I stayed true to my long term goal and I did what I said I was going to do.  On balance, I’ll take that any night.

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Do what you say you’re going to do

The particulars aren’t important, although it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t quick.  But I can tell you I’m looking at a hot, steaming pile of freshly slain EXCUSE on my living room floor, and I moved one day closer to my personal goals.

Why it’s hard

It’s hard because it’s so much easier to come up with reasons not to do something versus reasons why you should:

• I’m tired
• I’ll do double tomorrow
• I don’t have enough time
• I’d rather do this other thing
• I have so many other things to do
• etc., etc.

Even more nefarious is the reasons not to do something always somehow seem to make more sense than the one or two reasons you should.  “I’m really tired today and maybe getting sick” seems like a really good reason to not do your workout compared to “I know I should”.

So, how to make it easier?

Sorry, kids, I don’t have an answer for this one.  If there was a secret, someone would be making millions off it, and if it was easy everyone would be doing it.  But there isn’t, and it’s not.  It’s a one day at a time affair; you against The Beast.  All I can say is that when it comes right down to it, right now this second, you can either decide to DO what you’ve said/promised you will do, or you can decide to NOT do what you said/promised you will do.  And making that decision, really, is pretty easy either way.

What’s the payoff for slaying the Beast?

Ah, that one I can tell you and it’s pretty sweet.  You know that feeling when you decide not to do something you’ve promised yourself you would do?  Feels pretty crappy, right?  And it doesn’t feel any better tomorrow.  Well the feeling you get when you slay that Beast, and you follow through on your promise, and you do what you promised yourself you would do, is a thousand times better.

And, as an added bonus, it may be tomorrow, it may be next week or next month, but the next time The Beast thinks about sniffing around your rodeo, I can guarantee you it will think twice.

Good hunting, my friends…

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Why it’s hard

In my first review post, I wrote on a central theme of the book, the “secret to their success”, which is bringing a sense of joy to your life.  This sense of joy is what the author largely credits to the Tarahumara Indian’s ability to run 100 miles or more, all with a smile on their face.

With this post, I’d like to focus on a short segment in the book that I found particularly inspiring.  It’s about The Beasts the ultra-distance runners in the book encounter and how they respond to them. While the stories in the book are told by these runners, they nonetheless have just as much relevance for all of us.  Even as most of these runners do what they do because they love it, a point that really stuck out for me is that when they race, they are challenging themselves by not only attempting something most rational people would think verges on the insane, but doing it while pitted against some of the best in the world that do the same thing.  It dawned on me while reading the book that this is an apt metaphor for our own most aggressive, visionary and challenging goals, whether business or personal.  Some use the term BHAG to stand for Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  Those goals that will truly stretch us, where there is a good chance if not high probability of failure, and which (unfortunately) we are usually up against some world-class naysayers.

So, whether you’re running 135 miles through 130F heat, or tackling your own personal or professional BHAG, eventually you’ll bump up against The Beast.

What Beast?

For ultra-distance runners, The Beast is often fatigue related to pushing the fringes of human physical endurance.  For you and I, The Beast is usually more personal.  For some it may be self-confidence, for others, it may be competing priorities.  Even more nefarious are subtle Beasts like impatience and unrealistic expectations.

You don’t confront The Beast by joining Toastmaster to work on your fear of public speaking; you confront The Beast by agreeing to be the keynote speaker for a conference of your peers to work on your fear of public speaking before joining Toastmasters.

So what lessons did Born to Run teach me on how to fight The Beast?  I took two lessons out of the book.

Lesson #1: Learn to love The Beast

Lisa Smith-Batchen, who trained through blizzards to win a six day race in the Sahara, gave me the most direct lesson is dealing with The Beast: learn to love it.  In her own words:

I love the Beast.  I actually look forward to the Beast showing up, because every time he does, I handle him better.  I get him more under control.

The author adds his own commentary:

Once the Beast arrives, Lisa knows what she has to deal with and can get down to work.  And isn’t that the reason she’s running through the desert in the first place – to put her training to work?  To have a friendly little tussle with the Beast and show it who’s boss?  You can’t hate the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as ever great philosopher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it.

Lesson #2: Believe Know the Impossible is Possible

Lisa’s comments came within the broader context of a story about Scott Jurek, an elite ultra-distance runner who was looking for a new challenge.  He found that challenge in the Badwater Ultramarathon – 135 miles through some of the most brutal conditions in North America, perhaps the world.  Having conquered virtually every ultramarathon available, Scott was nonetheless humbled by Badwater 60 miles in, and collapsed to the ground:

…Scott was vomiting and shaky.  His hands dropped to his knees, then his knees dropped to the pavement.  He collapsed by the side of the road, lying in his own sweat…his friends didn’t bother trying to help him up; they knew there was no voice in the world more persuasive than the one inside Scott’s own mind.

Call it fatigue, call it exhaustion, call it the limits of human endurance, The Beast had arrived.  His thought process to pick himself up off the ground went like this:

There’s no way, you’re done.

You’d have to do something totally sick to win this thing now.

Sick like what?

Like starting all over again.  Like pretending you just woke up from a great night’s sleep and the race hasn’t even started yet.  You’d have to run the next eighty miles as fast as you’ve ever run eighty miles in your life.

No chance.

Yeah.  I know.

When The Beast arrives, there can be no doubt as to the goal and whether it will be reached; the only question can be what needs to change to get there.  The result of this race?  Scott not only finished the race, but with a new record time.

Change in perspective

The real message in this particular chapter though I found in Lisa’s comments about The Beast.  Literature abounds that prepares us to fight The Beast.  Whether it’s Nietzsche’s concept of the overman always fighting, always struggling; or your annual performance appraisal identifying “areas for improvement” – we seem to be programmed to view challenge as something to overcome.

The important change in perspective here is to view challenge as something to look forward to and welcome.  What a change in perspective – not to view overwhelming challenges as a battle, but something to be welcomed, even looked forward to.  The Beast then becomes a real-life laboratory to put into practice all that self-development you’ve been working on.  The Beast becomes an opportunity to grow and develop even further.

More importantly perhaps, learning to welcome The Beast puts YOU in control, not The Beast.  Oh, you may lose a battle here and there, but welcoming The Beast means you have already won the war.

This change in perspective also helps me put words to describing my concept of “personal excellence” I reference here on this blog but have never felt like I could adequately describe.  Learning how to do things better, even becoming an expert, is personal development.  Welcoming The Beast is personal excellence.

Your thoughts?

Does this resonate with you?  What Beasts do you encounter?  Do you welcome them or fight them?  Does the distinction between development and excellence ring true with your experience?

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Welcoming “The Beast”

Luck favors the prepared.

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How to be Lucky in Business

We believe in the separation of church and hate”

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Amen, brother!

Wag more.  Bark less.

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More advice from dogs

Push UP the hills, recover DOWN the hills, and SPRINT to the finish

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Training to be excellent

His view on work, and life, is that you don’t have to live your life the way people expect you to and if you don’t decide what you want to get out of life, someone else will do it for you.

Chris’ writings on personal responsibility and excellence are some of the best I’ve read and reflect the nature and spirit of the topic I try to impart on this site.  In a recent post talking about personal responsibility and “showing up”, Chris had this to say:

To be truly awesome, you have to go above and beyond the efforts of those around you, look for alternative solutions, and refuse to back down from the truth. There’s a whole article about it for those who are curious.

But it all starts with showing up. Or, as a friend of mine puts it:

“I’m sorry you feel bad about not meeting your goals– what I would suggest is that you begin meeting your goals, in order to feel better.”

Insight such as this is difficult for some people to accept. Just imagine the excuses you’d hear:

But that’s not fair! But I tried to do it and something else came up! But some things are out of our control!

You can probably think of other excuses – in fact, you’ve probably heard them many times over. Thankfully, for those of us who do take responsibility, there’s good news on two levels. The first good news is that we automatically stand out. In a world of buck-passers, those who decide to take responsibility are unusual. Yay. You get the yellow jersey by default. (You still have to win the race, but no one is surprised when you do.)

But on a deeper level, the bright side of taking responsibility is that you can own your own success. Sure, other people helped you get there, but you were the one who actually crossed the finish line. You showed up. You did it. If you have to own the struggle and failure, integral parts of any goal worth pursuing, surely you can also own some of the success.

Remember this: many people can help you achieve success, but no one else is RESPONSIBLE for your success.

I can’t speak for you, but for me this is pure inspirational genius.

I was reminded of this post last night.  I was attending a meeting of a local angel investor group.  There was an entrepreneur making a presentation in support of an investment decision by the group.  I love watching these presentations – I pick up so many ideas on what does and doesn’t work in a pitch presentation; especially in situations like these when it’s an actual, real-live pitch with money at stake!

The presenter was doing a good job; clearly he had done this before.  But then I noticed he was doing one of the no-no’s we coach our entrepreneurs about: he was constantly looking back at his slides.  He hadn’t fallen into the trap of reading the slides, but he was looking at them quite a bit.

Normally this is a very bad thing.  In this case, the presentation ended up being very well done.  The difference?  The entrepreneur took responsibility for his presentation’s success.  He was confident.  He was credible.  He was prepared.  And it was very apparent he was passionate and believed knew he was going to be successful.  To Chris’ point above, that kind of attitude stands out, mostly because it is too often seen.  For the fifteen minutes he was presenting, he owned that room.

The entrepreneur was approved for funding.  One could say it was because of a good product and sound business model.  One could say it was because of a positive report out of the due diligence team.  I would say while those were supporting factors, his funding was approved because he took responsibility for his success.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or someone simply interested in your own personal excellence – take responsibility for your success. 

Own your room.

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Own your room

Recession 101:

It’s a test not a final

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Recession 101

Figuring out who you are is the easy part; being who you are is the challenge.

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Thought for the day

What would you do if I gave you $1,440 every day?

Well my friends, you do get 1,440 every day – not in dollars but in minutes.  1,440 is the number of minutes in a day.  When you first hear the number it sounds a little low, doesn’t it?  A minute goes by so fast, it’s hard to believe there are only around 1,400 of them in a day.

Yesterday, as I sat talking with a coach of mine discussing some personal growth tactics, it dawned on me that the 60 minutes I spent in that discussion was the only “investment” of my 1,440 that day.  A mere 4.2% of my daily allowance.  Now, I expect a fairly significant payback on that on-going investment, but I got to thinking about all the daily activities and choices that offer virtually no chance of payback.

It’s a matter of focus.  Back in my martial arts days we had a saying: “Your energy flows where your thoughts go.“  If you want to invest your 1,440 into personal excellence then it has to be a focus in your life.  Obviously, it won’t be your sole focus, but it needs to be on that short list we all have of the 3 – 5 things that are most important to us and deserve daily attention and monitoring.

What are you doing with your 1,440 today?  Have you added personal excellence to your short list?

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1440

He showed up an hour early to make sure he had plenty of time to work through any IT glitches that might show up.  Sure enough, after everything got connected up, what the A/V system was displaying on the screen was the wrong resolution, out of focus and had interference lines running throughout it.  After playing around with the entrepreneur’s laptop settings a bit, I called our building’s IT support person.

Long story short, it ended up being nothing related to the laptop, the software or even the A/V system.  A computer cable, used to connect the entrepreneur’s personal laptop into the control system, had been lengthened to reach a desk at the front of the room.  The IT person simply jiggled a connecting point along the cable and the problem immediately cleared.

That got me thinking about how while we are all the connecting cable for most activities in our lives, we tend to look first at the things we are connecting when problems come up.

Career not headed in the direction you’d like?  It must be the employment market, or your recruiter, or your employer.  Right?  Well, maybe.  But what would happen if you jiggled your connection a bit?  Maybe your attitude needs some brushing up.  For that matter, maybe your wardrobe needs brushing up.  Maybe you could use some new skills.  Maybe you’re not making the right connections.

Project not on schedule, or over budget?  It has to be unrealistic management expectations, unproductive staff or scope creep.   Right?  Try jiggling your connection again.  Are you motivating your team and getting them into a mindset to deliver?  Do they clearly understand what is being asked of them?  Have you connected the analysts to the end users so everyone’s on the same page?  Are you sending the right message with your own work ethic?

Don’t get me wrong here.  I’m not suggesting that every issue we encounter in life, whether personal or professional, is somehow our fault.  Rather, I am suggesting that we should not forget that we are the “connecting cable” or common denominator between everything and everyone we deal with on a daily basis.  If something isn’t working out as you expected, don’t forget to look in the mirror as part of the resolution process.

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Do you have a bad connection?