I’m back after a week away. It wasn’t initially intended to be that way but that’s life sometimes. On Sunday Oct. 9th I did something I have not done in 6 years and it’s worth sharing as it relates to how I operate in business.
My thanksgiving weekend was all about a trip to Vancouver Island to run the Victoria Half Marathon. It was stunning and unusually warm weather for the run and much better that the last time I ran the full in the drizzly cold. I felt good and ran a consistent pace which a few weeks prior I didn’t think was going to happen.
Now here is where I relate running to operating a business. When we run long distances there are challenges. Most runners will say the mental pain is worse than the physical and when you’re 10k into a 21.1k run there is nothing you can do other than push through it to get to the finish line. In business it’s the same. The only way to the finish line is to push through the mental challenges so as Dory says “keep on swimming” or in my case, “keep on running.”
Running helped me learn how to push through no matter how tough things got and the act of running also became therapy when the world felt hard. I recognize running isn’t for everybody but I think there are many things that can help us in our businesses. Successful people typically engage in activities with challenges and accept them even when they don’t want to. Coming out on the other side is super rewarding however and for me, running is not going anywhere anytime soon.