Running in the Rain

It’s been said that the difference between successful people and failures are that successful people do the things that failures are unwilling to do.

I think this is true is every area of life – business, sports, health, family, etc.

Take a look at the different areas of your life that you deem successful. I can guarantee that you’ve done some things in that area of your life that others are unwilling to do. If it’s business, maybe that means cold calling, or networking, or some other activity.

A personal example for me was this past Thursday. As you know, I started my training for the Hartford marathon three weeks ago. On Thursday, I was scheduled to run six 800 meter fast paced runs. During the course of these runs, it started to rain and then turn into a pouring rain. I was soaked. I could have easily called it quits since I was running down the street from our house, but I didn’t.

Just read today’s quote by Mark Victor Hanson, (“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”) it says it all – the conditions are rarely perfect. That’s not the point. I ran in the downpour because I made a commitment to run the marathon. If I quit on a training run because of the rain, how committed am I? Also, how would that affect my next run, which happened to a 10k race on Saturday? And what about when the marathon comes around – who knows what the weather will be like in October.

I am not the world’s fastest runner and never will be. That’s not my goal. Distance running is a successful part of my life though – being willing to run in the rain is a great example of being willing to do what others are not.

What are the things that you do that others are unwilling to do in the different parts of your life? Your business? Celebrate your excellence in these areas.

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