So who has ever “thought” of doing a marathon? Do you know that the original Olympics never had such a grueling and long-distance event, but that it was inspired by the Legend of Pheidippides and his incredible run from Marathon to Athens to announce “Nike!” (Victory! Or Rejoice, We Conquer!)
Today, more that 1,000 marathons are completed all over the world and not everyone who begins… finishes. In fact, not everyone who “intended” to start training (or sign up for a Marathon) even did. Most importantly, do you know that 26 miles is NOT a marathon?
Starting is HARD! It takes something to move from where you are, to actually taking that first step. It’s a physics lesson. Moment. The Inertia of an object that is at rest has a “moment” and will require a Force to move from being at rest to moving. That “Momentum” builds… so it’s the difference between getting the rock rolling, to rolling down-hill. It’s that initial force that is the hard part! Then… Gravity takes over and that rock begins to roll!
But do you know that a marathon is actually 26.2 miles? That even if you “spoke” the goal and then even broke free of the Inertia of you inaction and actually trained and even showed up to the race… that if you pulled up at mile marker 26 and “called it good!” you would not actually have FINISHED a Marathon?!?!
Here’s the thing… and I don’t believe I’m the only one who has faced this “problem”…
I haven’t always FINISHED. Or at least not finished well.
A simple text message from a new friend was all it took to prompt this blog post. All it had was an image of two books he had purchased from one of my favorite authors… Jon Accuff.
There was a time that I realized how many things I had been putting off doing because I wasn’t ready… didn’t even have the time. I mean… isn’t the wearing “Badge of Busyiness” the requirement to be a part of the “IT” club!? So it was with great shock that Jon’s book “Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do work that matters!” opened my eyes to the pile of things that I hadn’t been making progress on because the “Finish” line wasn’t clear OR I “didn’t want to begin WITHOUT the end in mind…” I read that book (and took some other coaching) and just STARTED. I started getting good at starting… And do you know what I realized after a number of very successful starts?!?! I was still no better at FINISHING.
The game of “Catch” is a very lonely activity if there is no one on the other end to receive the ball and throw it back… and while I know we’re not going to “finish” everything we start with the finish we imagined… I do believe that EVERY Start has a Destination aligned with it. The “slight” problem is not all of those “finishes” align with the New things you’ve started. In fact, they often stand in the way of being able to see the FINISH you’re actually desiring.
So now I’ve been looking for all the places I haven’t finished well and/or not finished at all. Integrity requires it… Nothing works without integrity.
What have you put off “starting?” What remains unfinished?
26 Miles is NOT a marathon… run the 0.2. It’s worth it!