In the marathon, it’s not until about the 32km mark
In the Ironman Triathlon, it’s again at the end of the bike or even half-way through the run.
With the new business, it’s after dozens (or hundreds) of rejections, “no’s” or non-responses.
Then we feel like we have maybe gotten somewhere.
When we start the event or undertaking, we need to be ready for almost zero success upfront.
Sure there is the beginners curve which gives a little respite, but overall we still are nowhere relative to the end, or relative to the expert level.
How do we use this?
Even though we might know this intellectually, it continually seems to upset us. Over and over.
So what can we do?
It’s always going to be tough, but here are a few things I’ve tried that seem to help:
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Surround ourselves with a community. This provides a fun environment and a way to remind ourselves it’s about the journey
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Enjoy the actual learning curve itself. Take all meaning off of the end goal and break it down into steps. This is difficult at first but effective. In the marathon, when it gets difficult it can help to break it down into gaps between each “drink station,” which might be 2km apart
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Be ready for the long haul. Whatever you are working on can take a long time. A really long time. The biggest front in a lot of industries (business, fitness, weight loss etc) is that it can or should be fast. It shouldn’t. If it’s fast, either there was pre-existing work already done, something was given, or something might be wrong.
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Over-emphasise mental endurance. In the Ironman days, I used to do a lot of bike training on the indoor trainer, parked in the garage. I would set it up and have 4-6 drink bottles on a bench next to the bike. I faced a brick wall and I would put the workout on a small piece of paper on the wall. I’d stare at the brick wall, without music and accumulate 3-4.5 hours at different intensities. Boring, definitely, but when I got out onto the course, it was interesting and even fun. Things get easy after you prep for mental endurance by staring at a brick wall.*
*Unfortunately, this activity also over-emphasised physical stress.. Meditation or breath attention can be a great way not so much train mental “endurance,” but to become more intimate with the mechanisms of the mind itself. These insights can definitely help to foster patience and endurance.
