In the past 365 days, I have participated and finished eleven 42.2 KM marathons in nine cities. One of the questions I get asked after every marathon is: “What was your position?”. I usually answer with the “It is not about the finishing position” response. Most non-long-distance runners don’t seem to understand why anyone would leave their city of residence, fly to a new city to run a marathon and still not win anything or aspire to win anything. The reward is the journey of conquering the 26.6 miles distance and the numerous lessons to be learned by participating in the marathon,
Somedays will be more challenging than the rest, you will not want to get out of bed in the morning, and you will feel tired of all the challenges you are going through, but you have to keep showing up day in and day out. Success is not guaranteed, but struggles and pain are. Whatever would go wrong would eventually go wrong at the worst time expected time. No one has a pain-free life; the pain is temporary; no pain, no gain, no thorne, no throne, no gall, no glory. Adversity introduces a man to himself; you get orange juice if you squeeze an orange. Life is going to happen to you at some point: job loss, health scare, divorce, childhood trauma, depression, etc.
Decisive (adj.) 1, “having the quality or power of determining,” from Medieval Latin decisivus, from Latin decis-, past participle stem of decidere “to cut off; decide”. Meaning “marked by prompt determination” is from 1736. To achieve anything worthwhile in life, you must first decide what you want, stay committed to your goal and relentlessly execute by taking massive action daily. Scottish mountainer William Hutchison Murray put it best when he said in The Scottish Himalayan Expedition:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
It is estimated that the average adults makes about 35,000 conscious decisions 2 daily while a child makes about 3,000 decisions daily (Sahakian & Labuzetta, 2013). According to researchers at Cornell University, we make on average 226.7 food decisions daily. (Wansink and Sobal, 2007). 3 Most of the decisions that we make is habitual and in autopilot, the key to getting things done is to make more deliberate and conscious decisions daily. Our decisions and choices on a daily basis determines the direction of our life. Good decisions leads to good habits & fewer regret, Bad decisions leads to bad habits and more regrets.
“Just Do It” is the aspirational and inspirational slogan of the American show company Nike. The tagline was coined by Dan Wieden, one of the founders of the Wieden+Kennedy ad agency. In 1977, he followed the murder case of Gary Gilmore, who was executed by firing squad. Wieden was brainstorming for a tagline for a new series of Nike commercials, and he remembered Gilmore’s last word, “Let’s do it.” He changed it to “Just Do It,” and the rest, they say, is history.
You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great.
“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life is: could have, might have, and should have.” ― Louis E. Boone
English Novelist George Elliot said: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall median age of American workers is 42.3 years. 1 The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45. 2 We all start life with wild dreams and aspiration but along the way, we forget our greatness hence we settle for less than we can become. As American Essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson quipped “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” It is never too late to be who you might have become, fear is at the root of most of our inaction. The graveyard is said to be the richest place on earth, as we leave our music unsung, books unwritten, hopes and dreams unexplored just because we never dared to follow through with our wildest dreams.
My mum constantly told me, “Birds of a feather flock together.”, “If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.” I did not understand what the saying meant growing up, but the older I get, the more meaningful that statement becomes. As the famous saying goes, “You are the average of the five people you associate with the most and the books you read.” Your net worth is the average of the people you associate it, and to a large extent, how far you go in life is determined by your association, good and bad.
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. – Jim Rohn
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once quipped: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to change you is the greatest accomplishment.” If you don’t stand for something, you fall for everything. Most of us live on autopilot, people-pleasing, without healthy boundaries and invariably do not stand for anything. A life stance is your position on life, a frame of reference in which you are known.
experience (n.)1 late 14c., “observation as the source of knowledge; actual observation; an event which has affected one,” from Old French esperience “experiment, proof, experience” (13c.), from Latin experientia “a trial, proof, experiment; knowledge gained by repeated trials,” from experientem (nominative experiens) “experienced, enterprising, active, industrious,” present participle of experiri “to try, test,” from ex “out of” (see ex-) + peritus “experienced, tested,” from PIE *per-yo-, suffixed form of root *per- (3) “to try, risk.” Meaning “state of having done something and gotten handy at it” is from late 15c.
The word “average” comes from the Old French word “avarie” which means “damage to ship or cargo,” and is derived from the Arabic word “awar” which means “damaged merchandise.” In the Middle Ages, “avarie” came to refer to the distribution of the cost of such damage among the ship’s owners and cargo owners. By the 16th century, “average” had taken on the meaning of a division of a loss or expense among several parties. Today, “average” is used to describe a number or quantity that represents a typical or ordinary value within a larger group or population.
Greek Philosopher Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I add that an unlived life is not worth examining. I have been obsessed with measuring almost everything I have done in the past eighteen months, from my exercise regimen to goal-setting activities. Here are some ways I have experimented with measuring my daily activities.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. – T. S. Eliot
Going the extra mile means doing more than is expected, required or anticipated. In the business world, it means under-promising and over-delivering, paying attention to details, obsessing about customer satisfaction and getting things done. Going the extra mile is a great analogy, especially when you run a lot like I do; it means pushing yourself to go one extra mile while running, do one more rep in the gym, one more lap in the swimming pool, one more practice session before that all important presentation.
It’s not that optimism solves all of life’s problems; it is just that it can sometimes make the difference between coping and collapsing. – Lucy MacDonald
The ability to hope for the best when things are not going right is essential in navigating life’s ever-changing nature. Life is a roller coaster of challenges, trials, tribulations, vicissitudes and constant changes. It is extremely tough to stay optimistic when we are faced with the enormous strains of life, such as losing a loved one, losing a job, divorce, health & financial issues, and career not going as you want it to; it seems you are going from one storm to the other, you want to smile but a sigh is all you could muster, worry and anxiety is all around you; I know that feeling. We’ve all been there, no one lives a problem-free life; whatever would go wrong would eventually be wrong, but when things go wrong as they sometimes would, don’t go wrong with the present challenge you are dealing with. Don’t let success get to your head and don’t let failure get to your heart.
Your journey in life is going to get tough at some point; giving up might seem like an option but Don’t give up yet. The sun will rise tomorrow, this too shall pass, everything will be alright, and what you learn from the ordeal will make you a stronger person with character. When you are going through trials and tribulations, self-doubt and constant anxiety, it does not feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel but there is.
“A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.“. – John Barrymore
Regret is the emotion of wishing one had made a different decision in the past because the consequences of the decision were unfavorable. Regret is a negative emotion predicated on an upward, self-focus, counterfactual inference. (Gilovich and Medec 1995). Regret feels bad because it implies a fault in personal action: You should have done it differently, hence self-blame is a component of regret (Connolly & Zeelenberg, 2002).
Nothing moves until you move; if you want a different result in life, you would have to take a different approach. Doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Most of us wish to achieve our goals, but we hardly do anything about it. The difference between high achievers and non-achievers is that high-achievers decide, commit, and relentlessly execute their goals consistently.
There is a riddle I recently heard that perfectly describes the difference between deciding and taking action. There are five frogs sitting on a log, and one decides to jump off the log, how many frogs are left? The answer is not four frogs but five. Why? There is a huge difference between deciding and taking action. Most of us decide to go on a fitness regimen, read more books, save more money, listen more, and achieve our set goals. We do not follow through because we lack the commitment and self-discipline to take action consistently in executing our goals.
Without commitment, you’ll never start, but more importantly, without consistency, you’ll never finish
We all have a choice in life whenever something unexpected happens to us: you can become bitter or get better, get the message or stay stuck with the mess, let it lessen you or learn the lesson, become a victim of your situation or take agency for your life. Life is a roller coaster of challenges, trials, tribulations, upheavals and crises which, if not handled well, would create further chaos. Motivational speaker Les Brown often says: “If you don’t handle it with grace, it will stay in your face.” You are not a victim, you are not helpless, you are not a tree, and ultimately, you can handle any situation you find yourself in. Life can be extremely tough at times, and you want to call a pity party, you focus on the windows instead of the mirror, and blame everyone but yourself for what you are going through.
