Success - Finding my ‘Why’

Success - Finding My ‘Why’ 

I talked a lot about failure last week, I will likely touch on it more as I go since it is so relevant to success.

Let’s talk success for a moment, because I’ve also managed to have lots of that amongst all that failure.

The basis for my blog stems largely from what I accomplished in May, the reactions that ensued afterwards and conversations had prior all made me realize I needed to explain myself. I ran a full marathon, 42.2kms, without dying...although there was little chance that would have happened (the dying that is).

I sporadically have crazy ideas and this was one of them, so I decide to sign up in March largely to raise funds for charity but also to accomplish this feat that I put on a “List of things to do before I die” when I was around 19 years old. I made this list half of my life ago and still remember many of the crazy things on it while I continue to check them off. See, I had much more time, possibly more drive, energy, and less comprehension of risk and failure at that time. I will drive into this list further in another post as I do believe it bares a lot of relevance, importance, and keeps me driving towards those seemingly far-reaching goals, even 19 or so years later.

On that day in March, 11 weeks prior to the marathon, I’d never run a race before nor had I run more than 7 or 8kms nor was I in overly great physical shape. Hibernation had just ended, which meant a few prior months with much time spent around the house, little to no running, and little physical activity. I achieved it, on my terms and conditions, and accomplished the fundraising piece....my ‘Why’. 

To me, in this adventure among many others, the ‘How’ is the easy part and it’s about truly discovering the ‘Why’ that makes it attainable. The ‘Why’ is what gets you out of bed in the morning, gets you off the couch when you’re exhausted at the end of the day, makes you put the sneakers on, and gets you to the class. The ‘How’ is simply going through the motions your ‘Why’ is telling it to do. 

Why are you looking to do what you’re doing? Why is it so important? Why are you getting up early or staying up late? Why are you not binge-watching that hot new Netflix series? Why are you passing on that bag of chips or can of beer? 

Finding that ‘Why’ is the only thing I truly will push you to over-think or over-complicate. You manage to find it and anything in life is possible as, like I said, the ‘How’ is the easy putting one step in front of the other stuff when the ‘Why’ is really driving you past kilometres 35, 36, 37 all the way to 42.2. 

I found my ‘Why’ in raising funds to give back to those who are most vulnerable. But my ‘Why’ could only get me past the training pieces, through the 11 weeks, help me get the shoes on, and out to yoga a couple days a week. On marathon day those were all behind me, I’d raised the funds and did the training and could have easily bowed out. It would have been easy to stop running when I couldn’t do it anymore or walked for the second half. I had outs and didn’t take them. 

I’m not talking about goals here, I’m talking about something greater than goals. The reason why you set personal goals in the first place, your ‘Why’. For some it’s kids, others it’s spouses, parents, proving things to others who doubt you, being something larger than your perceived self, getting through past or present negative experiences, bullying. Whatever it is you need to find it. 

I managed to finish the marathon through some awful KMs, focused on my daughter and her view of her dad, focused on my wife and her sacrifice for me to chase this goal, and focused on the people committed to me running that day (volunteers, charities, sponsors, our city’s vulnerable). The village that surrounded me throughout drove me to push forward and actually complete what I had said I was going to do.

Find your ‘Why’, it’s usually right in your face every day and you need to find a way to harness it to use the energy for all aspects. 

First you need to find it.

DadBud