Let me tell you a story. My girlfriend, Emily, and I are training for a half marathon, perhaps one of the most challenging things I have done and will ever do in my lifetime. Every week, we run three or four times, we make sure to do our long runs every Sunday, and needless to say, we increase the number of miles we run every week.
This week is week 10 of our training. It has been hard, but it has also been extremely rewarding.Before we started training, I never felt excited before running. I just do it because of Emily; she always motivates me to do it. But I always feel energized, grateful, and happy after each run. It is a good feeling.
Together, we have run almost a 150 miles, which is crazy to me. But, when I look back, and I see the progress we have made in our pace, distance, and endurance, I feel proud and excited because I know that I earned those miles. I am also very proud of Emily and thankful for having someone who motivates and challenges me constantly with so much love.
When we run together, Emily is always ahead of me; she is just more athletic than I am. I like to think that it’s good for me to run behind her because I know that if I can keep up my pace to within a close range of her, I am pushing myself.
Emily also likes that I am running behind her because she knows that she has to push herself in order for me not to catch or pass her.
The first couple of runs were difficult because it was hard to keep up with her pace. Emily would nearly lap me. But every week that distance got shorter, and I knew I was improving — I could feel it. I also knew Emily was getting faster and stronger as well. And because she never stopped improving, neither did I. We got better at this together, and we enjoyed the process along the way.
Today, I am confident I surpassed my own self from 10 weeks ago because I worked hard to improve myself. And this journey made me realize, and validate the idea that everything in our lives is exactly that: training for a big marathon.
Students, marketers, entrepreneurs, or artists of any kind — we all aim for success. We are all working toward building our careers, getting our financial freedom, finding our ‘breakthrough.’ And the difference between that glorious day of success and today is all the work we have to put in between to achieve our goals.
When we research, experiment, fail, and learn something new, we are training to be prepared for that big moment of success. We are gaining knowledge, earning authority, and setting ourselves up for success. Yet, the training alone does not guarantee success. Consistency, discipline, and patience are also essential.
This is not a new concept, but it is actually a fairly intuitive idea. If we train consistently and we are patient with ourselves, we will see results. We constantly compare ourselves to athletes, superstars, leaders, and other outliers in our society who have already seen their work and discipline pay off. But we often forget the work behind a person’s success.
In the words of Gary “Vee” Vaynerchuk: “Trust the process, enjoy the journey.”
Our philosophy at ROI Online is that success is nothing but just hard work. And we mean it. We work hard, for our clients and ourselves. We enjoy the success our clients achieve as well as our own. That is part of our culture and our brand.
We continue to improve and grow because we train hard and consistently. And we are all doing this to be in the best form to run that big marathon.
I would like to invite anyone who reads this to get started in training for their success journey. And you don’t have to do it alone; myself and the team at ROI Online can be by your side, cheering you along, and pushing you forward!
Thank you for reading! Comment below or reach me out at carlos@roionline.com if you want to give me feedback or ideas on what to write next.
Illustration | GIF by Carlos Aguirre, @carlosaguirre__ on Instagram.
