Run Your Own Race

One foot in front of the other….

As someone who has run countless races and participated in many different types of endurance/adventure activities, the one thing I know how to do well is “run my own race”.

This means focusing on my own goal and my own training. It means NOT worrying about what everybody else is doing (ie. how they’re training, what they’re eating, the equipment they’re using, etc). Of course I pay a bit of attention as it’s always nice to learn from those who are more experienced than me, but I never lose sight of my goal, my race, my journey.

I can’t even imagine what it would be like if I kept switching my training program based on what a faster/stronger athlete was doing and then doing it again and again as I continued to discover my stronger competition.

This wouldn’t help me at all.

In fact, it would totally deplete me, decrease my focus, decrease the effectiveness of my original training plan and probably take me a helluva lot longer to reach my goal – AND I’d probably have some pretty big setbacks along the way emotionally as well.

SO WHY DO WE DO THIS IN BUSINESS?

I’ve seen and talked to so many people (and, I’ve done this myself) who are looking for that “magic pill”. The one program that’s going to change everything, the ‘entrepreneur shortcut’.

It’s so easy to look around and start comparing yourself and your business to others out there and all this does is keep you stuck…treading water…the whole comparison thing is like poison for your brain & your heart.

It leads to discouragement, insecurity and self doubt. It can make you question if you’re cut out for this, wonder if you’ll ever be “successful” and make you feel less than. So, instead…..

RUN YOUR OWN RACE

• Set your own business goals – don’t wander around aimlessly doing stuff half ass, it doesn’t work
• Write out exactly where you want to be and how you’re gonna get there…write this on paper (yes, this is akin to having a business plan).
• Seek out mentors and have some sort of a “coach”
• Then put your head down and RUN YOUR OWN RACE, simply put one foot in front of the other and keep going

I realized that in sport I was always most successful when I had the following things:

• A specific race picked that I was training – a goal
• A training program written on paper so that I knew exactly what I had to do and when
• I had a team or community of peers to train with
• I had a coach – someone to remind me of my goal, push me when I didn’t feel like doing what I needed to do, and reminded me of what I was trying to achieve

It took me a lot longer than it should have to transfer these basic things to my business. But now that I have —my business is rocking!

Last words:

RUN YOUR OWN RACE