Last sunday, I had the chance to take part in Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2012 and ran the half-marathon race. While I have been training for a couple of months now – I started in September and had a one month interruption because of a foot injury – it was actually the first time I was running such a long distance: 21.0975 km or A3.1094 miles. In addition, I was used to jogging on soft surfaces but the run took place on roads.
Nevertheless, I had a great time and finished the run in 2:27 hours, thus achieving Objective #8. During the race, I have been thinking about the different projects I am working on, the business I want to start and the way The DODEQA Project is evolving. This inspired me a series of lessons that we can learn from running a half-marathon and apply to business and life. These are more first thoughts than experience-based advice and I would love to get your feedback about them.
Will power equals fuel
If you do some research about training for a marathon, I am quite sure that you will stumble upon an article telling you to know why you want to run such a race before starting any program. Well, I think it is a great piece of advice, because engaging in such a difficult physical challenge will force you to grab every ounce of energy that you have and you will need to be highly motivated to do so. That’s what happened to me on Sunday when I started feeling tired: picturing me crossing the finish line and being satisfied about it (to have pushed my own limits) helped me to keep running.
Knowing why you run will provide you with the resource of motivation mentioned above. The same applies to business and life: whatever you want to achieve, you would better know why you want to do it. During tough times, this will let you unlock reserves of energy that you may not even be aware of and avoid giving up in front of the first obstacle.
Walking is fine
As I had never taken part in any official running race, I did not really know what to expect. But there is one thing I did not expect: seeing so many people walking. At first, I was surprised. Then I got used to it. Eventually, I understood the reason why all these people were walking during the race: they just wanted to finish it up! There is no rule that disqualifies you for stopping to run because you are the one in charge of your own performance and you need to manage your effort.
Sure, taking some “walking breaks” will slow you down, but this is still better than running all your way through exhaustion and not finishing the competition: it is all about endurance and long-term effort. There may be some take aways here for business and life: when we approach a new situation, it could be worth thinking whether we are in for a sprint or a marathon and act accordingly. It seems that overnight successes are more of exceptions than the rule and that successful people are those who work consistently and build their projects brick after brick.
Better to quit than getting injured
Sometimes, even when you take a break, or several breaks, joining the finish line is simply impossible. The organizers of the race knew that and they had set up some shuttles along the road to collect tired runners and drive them to the arrival area. However, I saw an incredible number of competitors who collapsed because they did not quit early enough. Quitting is tough but being forced not to run for days or weeks or months because of an injury is really worse. At least you make a decision when you quit.
Quitting is not really the same as failing. Failing is giving up without learning any lesson from what went wrong. Quitting is nothing more than a shift in strategy to increase your chances to achieve your goals. The same reasoning applies to business and life and a good resource on this topic is The Dip by Seth Godin. Perseverance matters and so does the ability to know when it is time to stop investing time and energy and money in a dead end project.
Enjoying the experience makes the effort easier to sustain
In the past few months, I have had the chance to train in different places and conditions: indoor and outdoor, in crowded cities and natural forests, alone and with a partner, etc. There is one thing I noticed: whenever I was able to enjoy the run, the effort seemed to less difficult to perform. The same phenomenon happened on Sunday: running in the desert streets of Hong Kong, with a great view on the mountains, the bay and the buildings and going through the underground tunnel was an unique experience and I did not want to miss any minute of it.
While the race required me to sustain quite a tough effort, it seemed to be less painful than when I was not enjoying the very activity of running. I experienced similar feelings when working on projects I was passionate about as time seemed to go by very fast. So, when we are in charge of a task, what if we could do our best to enjoy the process itself? This is something I am trying to do on a daily basis and I truly believe it is a powerful approach to accomplish more.
Support always helps
“Your medal is waiting for you!” and “Stop reading and keep running!”: these are two messages I remember from Sunday, which were written on supporting boards held by people on the sides of the road. They were not particularly directed to me but produced a surprising, great motivating effect on my motivation and my desire to finish the race.
Whatever you are trying to accomplish, support and positive feedbacks will take you closer to your goal. The least you can do is to accept this help and thank those providing it to you: they will not do the job for you but they can fuel your motivation and provide you with a slight boost of energy that will make you go the extra mile. Support should never be ignored.
What do you think of the above observations?
A bientôt !Share and Enjoy:
