Catatonic, Floundering and Without Purpose

How many times have you found yourself at a point in your day where you're not quite sure what to do? You reached the proverbial fork in the road and you don't know which direction to take? Or, you find yourself wandering, floundering or moving without purpose or direction?

Some of you may know I run. I run regularly and sometimes I run far. But, each day, each week, each month I run with a purpose. I train for three (four if I'm lucky) Marathons per year. I do speed work on Wednesday's and Saturday's, hills on Thursday's and long runs on Monday's. Tuesday's, Thursday's and Sunday's are upper body and core work. Additionally, I raise money for injured Marines and their families and collect food for the local food bank.

What's Your Point?

Running Marathons, and for the purpose of this post running a successful business, is about planning, education, dedication, commitment, consistency, experience, flexibility, determination and discipline. It's also about setting specific, attainable, relevant goals and measuring success.

Within all of us is a desire to be great. We work hard to be good at something and to strive to do better. Without specific purpose or direction, the measure for success and the ability to get better is greatly hampered. Purpose enables direction and generates additional experiences, which leads to increased knowledge and expertise.

Success is Subjective

Success in Marathons is not necessarily determined by a clock, placement, points or money. It can be, but for most runners including myself, success is determined by personal objectives. A successful Marathon can be a new personal record (PR), running without hitting "the wall", or just finishing without being "swept from the course". It's a personal goal and when met the feeling is exhilarating. No one can take that experience away from you.

We all have a desire to excel and achieve goals. The difference between surviving and thriving, in my opinion, are defining specific purpose and goals, measuring success and building on experiences. If you don't know where you're going, how you got there or where you started, achieving goals and measuring success will be difficult. Additionally, you probably won't generate new experiences to build on.

Forward Movement

Sometimes our performance plateaus and we find ourselves in a funk. That's ok, but figure out why the energy level isn't optimal or why motivation is lacking. Maybe you need a break, the training is incorrect or nutrition is deficient.

If all else fails just put one foot in front of the other. Don't become paralyzed with indecision and seize. Forward movement is better than no movement at all. At least you'll finish and remember that can be an accomplishment all by itself. Just settle into your pace and listen to the rhythm of running.