I’m in the midst of training for a half marathon. What I look forward to most about my runs is clearing my head and focusing on what’s ahead. On my last run, I was losing steam and I was only on mile 2 of 9. I started thinking about something my dad told me awhile back:
“It’s a distance race, NOT a sprint.”
At the time he told me this I was feeling discouraged about where I was in my career and was feeling lost. My dad explained how I can’t expect success overnight, and that I have to simply stay in the race, and keep my eyes on the goal.
It’s so easy to lose sight of progress if you’re in a rut or don’t think your career has progressed at the pace you initially sought for yourself.
But life IS a distance race.
In music, you see “flashes in the pan” all of the time. There are more one-hit-wonders than career artists. If what we're trying to do is significant, than it’s going to take endurance to see it through. We all need encouragement and an extra boost to stay the course. This is my encouragement to you, and in a way, to myself.
On my run, I was so caught up with getting to the “finish line” at mile 9 that my pace was way too fast at mile 2. I was burning myself out because I didn’t trust that I would get to mile 9. I wanted to speed up the process and get it over with. I wasn’t enjoying the journey and using what I gained along the way to get me to the goal.
Do you think that maybe who we are at mile 2 is not who we need to be at mile 9? If we look back, many times we weren’t at our full potential to fully execute our goals when WE wanted them to happen. We needed mile 1-8 to get us at our best for mile 9. We needed all of those shorter runs to train us for the marathon.
Can we believe in our mission enough to trust in it and stay in the race? Can we slow our pace, and avoid burning out in our own sprint of doubt?
Your goal, your mission is a distance race. Stay the course!
-Dom
Read more about staying the course in Dom's post, Documenting Milestone and find ways to enjoy the journey.