It is really important to imagine yourself completing something great. Imagine the moment when you are successful. That moment when you finish, how is that going to feel? Can you put yourself there mentally, emotionally? It is important to have the ability to see yourself actually able to complete the impossible.
However, it is equally important to realize that you cannot think about the finish while you are doing the tasks that will get you there. Why?
Not sure I have the answer actually. I have read some on this, but I have also been following various incredible athletes on journeys of amazing feats of endurance, speed or other accomplishment. They all talk about this concept.
Scott Jurek, who recently beat the record for fastest time to run the entire Appalachian trail. He said in his book North that he just stopped thinking about the finish. He only thought about the now. He knew he would finish, because that was his vision that he had memorized. However, after running through every condition and going through an intense struggle he said that he stopped thinking about the finish.
Charlie Engle, who recently ran the entire Sahara desert, said that once he got into day 20 of running over 50 miles a day in hell, that he just had stop thinking about the finish. The finish will defeat you if you are not careful. He says that he thinks about accomplishing the small goals, and it is the completion of all the small goals that the big goals happen.
The parallels to our everyday lives are amazing. I am not going to doing anything close to what these guys have done, but if you think about it, most of us have goals that are equally ambitious. It may not be physical, but we all have goals and dreams and based on our current condition they may be worse then running the Sahara, worse then running a 100 miles, worse then losing 100 pounds. In order to get to these amazing goals, we can learn this lesson. Imagine how awesome the finish would be, determine what you would need to do to get there and then start doing it and then promptly forget about the finish.
This happens to me know that I am running longer and longer distances all week long. I just start running now and if I find myself thinking about the end, I get demotivated quickly. However, if I just run and focus on the now, I am able to get into a groove or a zone that allows me to get past the minor annoyances that used to stop me in the past.
So if you have a course of action (that is important), then stop thinking about the end state for a while. Instead think about what you have to do today and get it done. Have confidence that the plan you worked out will work and that one of these days you will wake up and realize – oh wow – I accomplished my goal.
Guy Reams
365 Alumni
63 Days Left to 1st Marathon
