Lessons from the Road: Push On

...Even if it's unfamiliar. 

This weekend, I was in Louisville, KY at Freedom Hall for a leadership/success celebration conference through one of my favorite organizations, Leadership Team Development. We heard so many amazing speakers, including Dr. John C. Maxwell, the king of leadership training. 

During a break at the conference, I decided to go on a 4.5 mile run and explore a bit. Louisville is on the Ohio River, and was surrounded by bridges and paths. I just started running, found a path along the river, and in the distance, saw 2 immaculate bridges. I decided that I was going to run across this one bridge that appeared to be close by. First of all, it wasn't as close as I thought and I was on a timeline! Secondly, I couldn't quite figure out how to get there, although I just figured it out. 

As I was running across this bridge, the creep of the unknown started to settle in after about minute six. The bridge seemed longer than I had expected and it was on an incline, so I really couldn't see the other side (my goal). The scenery was lovely and the weather was perfect, and I was renewed, simply by running in a different location. But the doubt of how long this bridge actually was and if I had time to complete it, started to enter my mind. 

I almost turned around, before I looked at my watch and realized it had only been 8-minutes. 

I pushed on across the bridge, got to the other side, tagged the rusty side rail, checked my watch and started running back. 

It took 9-minutes to get across the first time. 

It took 6-minutes to get back across.

This got me thinking about life, about goals and about dreams. Now, my above example is a little bit dramatic, but I think that we can often do this to ourselves when pursuing an unknown (something we have never done) or something that seems outside the box (like maybe something "the world" wouldn't jump for joy about). 

You see, on the way across the bridge, I didn't know how far it was, how long it would take, or really the end point (because I couldn't see it). All I saw was some pretty water and the road in front of me. What if I had given up at 8-minutes? I would not have met my goal by 1 more minute of running. 

Apply this to life. Have you ever pursued something and given up at that moment that it seemed like it wasn't going to happen? I demand today; keep pushing on. Your dream or your goal may be just around the corner and all you have to do is just push a little more. 

Also, the second time you do the unknown, it doesn't seem like it takes as long, or is as challenging. I improved my time by 3-minutes, because I knew where I was going and now had experience with this particular route. Have you ever driven somewhere new where you didn't inherently know the directions (you had to use GPS) and it seems to take forever, but on the way back, it seems much faster. 

The same thing applies to those steps that it takes to get to your goals. Once you do something once, the second time is not so bad. Say you make the decision to start exercising and you do so moderately for 20-minutes. You may not know if you can get through 20-minutes, but once you do, you know you can do it again and again.

My message today is simple. Keep pushing on, even when it feels like you may not be getting anywhere. If you are consistent and persistent and taking the appropriate action, success may be just a sliver away.