Can’t see the video? Click here.

The above video sees me interviewing Jacob Sokol about his excellent new guide called Living on Purpose (more details at the bottom of the post). I love chatting with Jacob and checking out his blog because the guy absolutely oozes enthusiasm for life, and that shit’s contagious

To keep the interview relatively short and sweet, I wanted to hone in on one specific section of Jacob’s guide, the part where he tackles the subject of worry. Listing a few of the key points here:

• Worry is a sneaky and subtle type of fear.
• Worry only takes place in future psychological time. It doesn’t actually exist. It’s ALL in your mind.
• Nothing good comes from worrying. Not only does it drain you mentally, but it often acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy and sends signals to your mind to make what you’re thinking about appear.
• The only cure for worry is to take action. Or, if it’s something you can’t control, the only sane thing to do is forget about it.
• Studies show that 90% of the things we worry about never happen anyway.
• Your fear is NEVER as scary as it seems. Action builds confidence and confidence kills fears.
• You’re gonna be all right.

My take on worry

I’m actually gonna disagree with Jacob a little on this.

I don’t believe worry to be an entirely bad thing. As Jacob notes in his guide, worry is a type of fear, but fear can sometimes serve us well. That apprehension and tightness often moves us out of harm’s way, or urges us to sneak a precautionary peek before we leap. For example, I’m pretty scared of getting gang raped in prison, and so I go out of my way to avoid criminal behavior and batting my eyelashes at horny gangs of big hairy men.

There is a line though, and once across it you find yourself living in slavery. No longer does your fear act as a signpost and provoke you to take courageous action. Instead, you find yourself stressed out and paralyzed, the fear owning you. You worry endlessly and no good comes of it. When you’re at that point, life pretty much sucks.

The cure

And here’s where I agree with Jacob completely: If you’re scared of something, taking action will always bring the fear down a few notches.

If you’re worried about losing your job, get busy building your skillset and developing a side-business to supplement your regular income. Then you won’t be so screwed when the layoffs hit.

If you’re worried about what that hot piece of ass will think of you, go talk to them and find out, then you’ll know for sure and can stop guessing. Go flirt with a thousand more hot asses and you’ll eventually develop an immunity to the first impressions of complete strangers. You’ll roll with the occasional rejection and keep your head held high.

See, worry is good when it inspires you to get up off your own hot ass and do something. But you can’t dwell on it; It shouldn’t take long for that worry to be transformed into action. Every second you wait is a waste of time and energy.

The things you can’t control

I like the serenity prayer that Alcoholics Anonymous uses (feel free to paraphrase the G-man out of it if he makes you uncomfortable):

“God, Grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Sometimes we just have to accept that a situation is shit and that we’re not yet in a position to make it any less shitty. Worrying about such things does nothing but stress you out and make you less than your best while the inevitable happens anyway. Better to forget about it and focus your energy and attention within your circle of influence.

My worries

Lately, I find myself biting my fingernails. Again.

I had the habit all my life up until about three years ago, when I finally managed to quit. I was in New Orleans at the time, living my basketball dream, pretty settled, growing ever-more comfortable in my own skin. But now I’ve gone and pushed myself way out of my comfort zone with this whole self-employed vagabond lifestyle, one which I’m still working hard to make sustainable. So I worry, and the nailbiting appears to be the physical manifestation of that.

But it’s okay. I don’t believe I’ve crossed the line just yet. My worries are still working for me, and not the other way around. They keep me sharp and act as solid signposts. I feel strongly that I’m moving in the right direction, taking the right actions, getting a little more confident every day.

Your worries

If you find yourself fretting, don’t beat yourself up about it. When you push step out of your comfort zone, you’re going to worry. The key is to know where to draw that line.

Recognize when your worry is working for you (helping you to stay on top of things), and when it’s holding you back (stressing you out and keeping you stuck). When you find yourself dealing with the latter, either take action, or let it go.

That’s the best you can do.

…

Living On Purpose (and my best offer ever)

Here’s the skinny on Jacob’s guide: It’s 150+ pages all about how to live your best life, written by a guy who’s been living his for some time now. To be completely up front with you, I haven’t even finished reading it yet. There’s so much good stuff in there, no filler, that I’m taking my time to go through it all properly.

Living on Purpose won’t be for everybody, but if you’re looking for a comprehensive guide that shows you the type of mindset you need to really thrive and enjoy the bejaysus out of your days, then you should check it out. Jacob’s gone the extra mile and provided audio and video versions of the guide, too, so you can absorb the material however you want.

But before I link it up, I want to sweeten this deal for you, o legendary Disrupting the Rabblement reader. I’m feeling mighty generous as I get ready to head to Cork for my cousin’s wedding, so if you go ahead and buy Living on Purpose via the affiliate link below, you’ll also get FREE lifetime access to my Course In Courage, PLUS a $47 discount off the base price of a $50 Blog. To avail of the goodness, all you need to do is forward along the email receipt from your purchase of Living on Purpose to himself [at] ndoherty [dot] com.

So yeah, that’s $94 of value I’m throwing in there. The offer will remain open until midnight GMT on Sunday (September 4th). Forward me that receipt before then and I’ll get you hooked you up. Oh, and if you have no real need for a $50 blog right now, I’d urge you not to cash in on that discount right away; Keep it in your back pocket and I’ll honor it at a later date, no expiration.

Sound good? Alright, have at that affiliate link…

Living on Purpose by Jacob Sokol

Can’t see the video? Click here.

So I came across an ebook recently by Vlad Dolezal, called Unleash Your Confidence (affiliate link). There was one part in particular that really resonated with me. While discussing beliefs, Vlad writes,

There is no “true” or “false” with beliefs, only useful and detrimental.

To illustrate this, Vlad goes on to give the example of a woman in her mid-forties who still believes in Santa Claus. Why? Because having such a belief helps her feel in touch with her roots and closer to the people she cares about. Intellectually, this woman knows that believing in ol’ Saint Nick is ridiculous, but doing so isn’t causing her any harm — just the opposite, actually — so she holds on to it. For her, it’s a useful belief. The emotional payoff makes it worth holding on to.

Thinking about all this brought back memories of one of my favorite books, The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck (affiliate link). Peck was a practicing psychiatrist for many years and, even though it was considered taboo, liked to discuss religion with his patients. He believed faith was a massive part of a person’s identity and so it shouldn’t go unexamined when they were having problems. Some of Peck’s patients came from über-religious backgrounds and believed strongly in gospel and such. Others had no faith whatsoever. Over the years Peck began to notice, much to his surprise, that some of his patients would reach a better level of mental health by stepping towards a life of faith, while others would benefit by stepping away from it.

What this illustrates to me is that there’s no one right way, no one right set of beliefs. Our beliefs themselves don’t really matter. What matters is that they are useful and empowering to us (not just individually, but collectively as well). For some people, handing your life over to God is a great idea. For other people, not so much.

Paulo Coehlo sums this up nicely:

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.”

My beliefs

I’m going to throw some of my own beliefs under the microscope here and examine whether they are useful or detrimental. (Note though that when I label a belief as “useful” or “detrimental”, that labeling in itself is also a belief. Confusing, huh?)

The first belief that comes to mind relates to self-employment. I believe I can excel at working for myself, continuously earning enough money through my online ventures to support the three-year, round-the-world trip I hope to soon embark on. Now that may not actually be true — I could end up living back home with my parents, scraping together enough pennies to get my next falafel fix — but I keep believing it anyway. Because not having that belief would be detrimental, it would guarantee failure.

A limiting belief related to the above is that I’m new to all this self-employment lark. This is my first business, and I believe I have lots more hard work and struggle ahead of me before I break through. But what if I ditched that belief? What if, instead, I chose to believe that I’ve already succeeded as an online entrepreneur, and started carrying with me a swagger that screamed “been there, done that, doing it again, just for kicks.” Would that belief be more useful to me?

I imagine that it would, and so I’m working on adopting that belief

I also have strong beliefs about my diet. I’ve been vegan for two years, and it works well for me. I believe it helps me stay sharp mentally, avoid junk food, and maintain high levels of self-discipline and resistance to social pressure. It also makes me feel good as regards the environment and animal rights. Of course, many people have the belief that plant-based diets are unhealthy. A doctor I met here in Burgos last week is one such person. Maybe he’s right, but I have yet to experience any ill effects from veganism. To date, shunning animal products has proven far more useful than detrimental to me, so I’ll stick with it.

Related to that, a limiting belief I once had (when I first became a veg head) was that everyone should refrain from eating meat. The idealist in me still wants to hold on to that belief, but I’ve given up on it since it proved to be detrimental. Having such a holier-than-thou attitude didn’t help me convince anyone to stop eating meat; it only helped piss off a lot of my friends. Nowadays I choose to believe that there’s no one diet that works well for everyone, and that folks should experiment to find out what works best for them. This is a more useful belief for me.

Lying to yourself?

You may be thinking that adopting useful beliefs comes at the expense of lying to yourself. Well, yeah. It does.

I’m reminded of something Muhammad Ali once said:

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

Coming up as a fighter, Ali knew he wasn’t the greatest, but he also knew that if he was to ever become the greatest, he’d have to start believing that he was. He recognized the truth, but realized that the truth was going to limit him, so he cast it aside. It was better for him to adopt that empowering belief, even if nobody else went along with it… yet.

What beliefs are holding you back?

Consider your own beliefs. Think long and hard about them. It can actually be quite difficult at first to identify which are useful and which are detrimental. It’s tempting to leave a belief unexamined because you tell yourself “it’s not a belief, it’s the truth!” But keep in mind that truth is secondary here. Take a break from reality and see what you come up with.

Maybe you believe that you suck at attracting a romantic relationship, or that it’s impossible to make a living doing what you love, or that you can never achieve your ideal weight. Perhaps you have evidence to back up those beliefs, but ignore that for now. Ask yourself only if the belief is useful or detrimental to you you.

• Does believing that you suck at romantic relationships help you find a satisfying romantic relationship?
• If you believe it’s impossible to make a living doing work that you love, is it likely that you’ll ever end up doing that?
• As long as you believe that you can never achieve your ideal weight, what are the chances of it actually happening?

How to change your limiting beliefs

All of the above has been running through my mind since reading Vlad’s ebook, Unleash Your Confidence (affiliate link). Not only does Vlad do a great job of explaining what limiting beliefs are and where they come from, he also guides you through a 5-step process for changing limiting beliefs.

Tis good stuff. There are seven other helpful chapters in there, too, all for just $17.

The gap between knowledge and action

To wrap this up, I wanted to write a little about the issue I’m guessing many people have with all these ebooks and courses and such. It’s this: You know that the information is good, and you know that if you follow the steps provided that your life will be better, but you still fail to take action.

I often struggle with this myself. About six months ago I bought a package of 23 business courses from 23 successful online entrepreneurs, and yet I’m still sitting here struggling to make money online. Why? It hasn’t been due to a lack of knowledge — I have more knowledge at my fingertips than I know what to do with — but due to a lack of persistent action. And that’s something I’m trying to remedy over these next few months.

But I’m curious to get your take on this, too. When has something like a book or a course motivated you to take successful action? And what was is it about that book or course that made the difference?

I’ve been thinking a lot about courage recently. You need a heavy dose of courage to follow your dreams and make the most of your time alive. I’ve concluded that one of the biggest things that makes people courageous is perspective. Courageous people tend to look at the world in the following ways:

1. I’ll end up regretting the things I don’t try more than the things I do.
2. If I don’t conquer my fears, they will conquer me. As such, fear is usually an indicator of what I should be doing.
3. I don’t get over the fear and then do the thing, I do the thing and then get over the fear. Many times the fear doesn’t go away, I just learn to handle it better.
4. The worst case scenario really isn’t that bad. I can recover from pretty much anything.
5. There are millions of people in the world who will never have the opportunities and freedoms that I do. As such, I should make the most of them. Where much is given, much is required.
6. My present situation is the result of my past thoughts and actions. My future situation will be the result of my current thoughts and actions.
7. I don’t have to live my life the way other people expect me to.*
8. My message has no power unless I live it. I must be the change I want to see in the world.
9. A firm no is better than a half-assed yes.
10. To get what I’ve never had, I must do things I’ve never done.
11. Tell me and I’ll forget, teach me and I’ll remember, involve me and I’ll learn.
12. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
13. If I’m not failing, I’m not trying hard enough.
14. In the long run, people will respect me more if I just be myself and not the person I think will impress them.
15. I am my biggest obstacle to success. I must give myself permission to be awesome or it will never happen.
16. The best job security is my own competence.
17. Not everybody has to like me.

I believe that by developing this kind of perspective, you can live a courageous and immensely fulfilling life. If you think that’s impossible for you, please reread #6 on the list.

Are you courageous? What’s your perspective?

…

* As mentioned in the video, several of these perspectives come courtesy of Chris Guillebeau. I’ve been working my way through his blog archives for the past few months. Highly recommended for anyone looking to forgo the default lifestyle and make a positive difference in the world.

In a nutshell, the speech is about the importance of taking action. If you’ve seen the movie The Secret or are otherwise familiar with the Law of Attraction, you may have noticed that a lot of emphasis is placed on the thinking side of things, and not so much on actually getting out there in the world and taking action.

Now that’s not to say that The Secret sucks or that the Law of Attraction is worthless; I’m simply saying that positive thinking is only half the battle.

If you’ve tried and failed putting the Law of Attraction into practice, it’s likely that you spent too much time thinking, and not enough time acting. To reach your goals, you need to do both consistently. Think the right thoughts and take the right actions.

It’s been said that luck is the meeting of preparation and opportunity. I agree with that, so I’d advise you to get busy preparing for the opportunities that are coming your way. Spend some time thinking and visualizing, sure, but then go attend those classes, make those phone calls, run those laps or do whatever it is you need to do to get yourself ready.

I’ll leave you with the quote from Yvon Chouinard that I used in my speech:

There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, “Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,” and an optimist who says, “Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine anyway.” Either way, nothing happens.

I’m happy to report mission accomplished: I finished in a time of 40:05 and was 154th to cross the finish line.

In this post, I’d like to share a few tips and tricks I used to achieve my goal. I took a very experimental approach to my training and preparation and learned quite a lot in the process, not just about running, but also about setting lofty goals and how best to achieve them.

And make no mistake, this was a big challenge for me. I don’t consider myself much of a runner; this 10k was just the third race I’d ever run in my life. My 2009 time for the same course was 46:15, which works out at a full minute slower per mile than my 2010 time, even though I expended maximum effort in both races. Plus, I only started my real training for the 2010 race ten weeks before the big day.

Before diving into the meat of this post, I’d also like to note that I am not a doctor, a nutritionist, a certified personal trainer or anything like that. As such, don’t take take anything I write below as professional, can’t-miss advice. This is just me sharing my own experience. The exact same techniques are unlikely to give you the exact same results, but hopefully some of them can benefit you.

With all that said, I’d like to start with some tips on setting a strong goal. This is a vital first step, but all too often neglected. If you regularly find yourself dreaming of bigger and better things, but rarely find yourself actually accomplishing those things, chances are you suck at setting goals. I have a friend who, every time I see him, tells me about some big new project he has in the works, something that he’s sure will turn his life around once he gets it up and running. I’ve heard him talk like this for years now, and I’ve yet to see him deliver on any of his promises. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, he’s never even come close to achieving one of his lofty goals. All talk, no walk. I don’t want you to be that person.

So how do you set a strong goal? Simple: you get SMARTER.

SMARTER Goals

SMARTER is an acronym you can use to help set a strong goal. There are a few variations of this (see them all at Wikipedia), but I’m just going to describe the version that works best for me. I’d also encourage you to check out this YouTube video on the subject by Tim Brownson, who does a great job running through the SMARTER method in less than five minutes.

S is for Specific

It’s extremely important that your goal be specific. You need to define success so you’ll recognize it when you get there. Lots of people say their goal is to lose weight, but that’s terribly vague. How will you know when you’ve lost enough? Give yourself a target weight to aim for and suddenly you have a finish line, something tangible to focus on.

For the Classic, I made sure my goal was very specific. I knew twelve months earlier that I wanted to finish in the top 200, but that wasn’t really specific enough. I asked myself, what kind of time would I have to have to finish in the top 200? I checked out the results of the 2009 race and found that the 200th-place person completed the 10k in a time of 41:09, so I knew I’d need to finish inside the 41-minute mark to really have a chance.

M is for Measurable

You need to be able to measure your progress as you work towards your goal. If you’re an entrepreneur and you want to earn $100,000 in 12 months, you should be able to check your finances at any point throughout the year and see how you’re progressing towards your goal. If you’re 6 months in and you’ve only made $20,000, well then you know that your actions aren’t producing the results you need, and from there you can make decisions and adjust accordingly while there’s still time.

For the Classic, I did a lot of measuring. I decided to run 10k every Saturday for the ten weeks prior to the race, and broke down my per-kilometer and per-mile times every week to see if I was getting closer to my target pace. I ran shorter distances on Tuesdays (3.4 miles) and Thursdays (2 miles), sometimes going for speed and other times focusing on technique.

I also measured off half-kilometer checkpoints along the race route, so I’d be able to check my progress approximately every two minutes during both practice runs and the real deal. By doing this, I was able to tell pretty quickly if I was slacking or pushing too hard.

A is for Actionable

This involves breaking down your goal into manageable and practical action steps. An example: If you have a goal to find a great romantic relationship for yourself, you might identify several things you can do to help you achieve it, such as:

• Join some appealing social groups so you can meet more people with similar interests.
• Ask out someone you find attractive.
• Come up with a list of ten qualities you want most in a partner.
• Become more physically attractive through exercise and a healthy diet.

Each of those steps can in turn be broken down into smaller steps, until you are left with a tidy list of straight-forward tasks.

For the Classic, I identified many different actions I could take to help me finish in the top 200, such as:

• Read a highly-rated book about proper running technique.
• Practice said technique.
• Run three times per week (including 10k on Saturdays).
• Experiment with different footwear to see how it affects performance.
• Practice several times on the actual race route.

R is for Realistic

Your goal must be realistic, which sounds obvious and easy, but then, what is realistic? Once upon a time, flicking a switch on the wall to have a room fill with light wasn’t realistic. Space travel, skyscrapers, the 4-minute mile… all of that was thought to be impossible before it was possible.

My point here is that you shouldn’t sell yourself short when considering if a goal is realistic for you. All of us are capable of far more than we know or dare to dream. We can achieve almost anything if we’re willing to pay the price.

That price is what it really comes down to. You can achieve pretty much anything, but what are you willing to sacrifice along the way? I know I could have finished in the top 100 of the Crescent City Classic if I had been willing to spend more time and money. But I wasn’t. With the resources I was willing to allocate, and given my experience in the 2009 race, I was confident I could achieve my goal of finishing in the top 200. All things considered, that was realistic for me.

T is for Time-bound

You’re much more likely to achieve your goal if you give yourself a deadline. To return to the weight example, you might be specific about wanting to lose 50 pounds, but if you don’t give yourself a deadline then there’s never any pressure to get started. You’ll always be telling yourself that you’ll start tomorrow, and before you know it you’re 80 and still fat. Setting a hard deadline for yourself eliminates a lot of that procrastination.

I believe deadlines are one of the biggest reasons you can learn so much in college. Most of the information taught in universities can be accessed by pretty much anyone for much less than the price of your typical tuition, but having college professors set tasks and deadlines for you is what makes the difference. They force you to get boatloads of work done and absorb lots information in a short period of time. If you don’t turn in quality work on time, they fail you.

I didn’t have much say in the deadline for my goal, since race day was set well in advance by the organizers of the CCC. But imagine if my goal had been to finish in the top 200 of the Crescent City Classic… someday. There’s a good chance I’d never have done it. The deadline made all the difference. It was then or never.

E is for Ecology

Ecology is how things relate to and interact with one another. When setting a goal, you need to consider the effect it will have on you and on those around you. I like the example Brownson gives for this: If you’re a smoker who wants to quit, you may need to stop socializing with smokers for a while until you get over the hump. You’ll need to consider the effect that might have on certain relationships and ask yourself if the payoff is worth it.

Before committing to my goal, I had to consider the sacrifices I’d have to make to succeed. One of my favorite things to do is to play pick-up basketball once or twice a week, but I knew I’d have to drop that and make running my primary exercise for a couple of months. I also had to consider how my practice schedule would fit in with my other commitments, and I knew I’d have to cut back on the drinking and be okay with my social life slowing down for a while (easier said than done with Mardi Gras smack-dab in the middle of my training).

R is for Reward

This comes last but I believe it is the most important part of the SMARTER goals system.

Make sure your goal is actually something you want to accomplish. This sounds obvious, but it’s very important that you take some time to consider what your reward will be, what your real motivation actually is. People often think their goals are their own, but much of the time the goals actually belong to their parents, their peers or even society. Such influences are not always bad, but it’s important to be aware of them nonetheless.

Ask yourself if you’re taking that accounting course because you’d love to be an accountant someday, or is it more so because your parents think accounting is a respectable profession. Or maybe it’s because society has trained you to want an unfulfilling desk job for the next 40+ years of your life, just like everyone else.

What I’m talking about here is extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivators are things like money, praise or the threat of something bad happening. They may drive you to accomplish many things, but any happiness or fulfillment that comes with them, if any, will be fleeting at best.

Having intrinsic motivation, meanwhile, means that you do something because you want to do it, you love to do it, you’d even do it for free and without accreditation. Naturally, it lasts longer than extrinsic motivation.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that pure, 100-percent intrinsic motivation is rare, if not impossible. I was motivated to finish in the top 200 of the Crescent City Classic because I thought it would be a worthy challenge for me, a good exercise in goal achievement and something that would help build my belief that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little giddy in anticipation of the admiration and congrats I would receive if I succeeded.

So the important thing isn’t to ensure that you’re completely free of extrinsic motivators; just that they are heavily outweighed by intrinsic ones.

One more thing on the subject of reward and motivation, and this comes courtesy of Steve Pavlina’s book, Personal Development for Smart People. Steve writes about the importance of setting goals that excite you and improve your present reality, as opposed to setting goals that will mean lots of back-breaking work, struggle and heartache before hopefully paying off at some distant point in the future. In other words, the actual path towards achieving your goal should be fun and enjoyable, not just the final outcome.

So that’s how you set a strong goal. I hope you can see the value in sitting down and spending time planning out your goals using the SMARTER system. Obviously, things like action and perseverance are also needed to be successful, but there’s no substitute for proper planning. After I sat down and planned out how I could finish in the top 200 of the Classic, there was no doubt in my mind that I would do it. That’s the power of this process.

Experiment like crazy

Another vital lesson I learned from my experience was the value of experimentation in goal achievement. I experimented quite a lot in my training, not wanting to settle with the status quo or make too many assumptions. Here’s just a sampling of the things I played around with:

• The POSE method of running
• Vibram FiveFingers shoes
• Resting halfway
• Carrying a drink
• Pre-race meals
• Skipping a Tuesday/Thursday practice run (more rest)

I kept a detailed run log to record the results of my experiments, noting everything I could think of. After ten weeks, the data could tell me what factors produced my best results. For example, I learned that I ended up with a faster overall time if I slowed to a walk and drank for 20-30 seconds halfway through the race, as opposed to running non-stop to the finish line. Another example: A light meal (fruit/veg) on Friday nights, as opposed to a heavy meal (rice/pasta), boosted my energy levels on Saturday mornings and resulted in faster run times.

The first two experiments on the above list deserve special mention:

The POSE method of running

In golf, there is a general consensus about the best way to swing the club when teeing off. There’s a particular technique there that, once mastered, delivers excellent results. The same is true of shooting a basketball, typing on a keyboard, folding a t-shirt and, yes… even running.

Since this post is more about goals than running, I’ll just give you a quick overview of the POSE method, as described in the book by Dr. Nicholas Romanov. Here’s a good video about the technique from the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World…

And here are a few of the key factors of the POSE method:

• Legs pulled from the ground instead of pushing against it
• Legs fall back down to the ground (no effort)
• Slight forward lean (falling forward)
• Legs never straighten
• Land on the ball of the foot, never the heel
• Minimal upper-body movement

Put all that together and you get a free-flowing running style and much less pounding on the body. If I had used my traditional running style, I’m sure I would have again suffered from the crippling back pain that had kept me from running on hard surfaces for years.

That’s not to say that I mastered the POSE method — it’s quite difficult to do so, especially without a coach — but I was able to apply enough of the principles to help me reach my goal. In fact, I sincerely doubt that I would have succeeded without it.

Vibram FiveFingers Shoes

Injini socks and Vibram FiveFingers shoes (KSO model)

I ran the Classic wearing Vibram FiveFingers shoes (KSO model) and Injinji socks. Usually you can wear the Vibrams without any socks, but when running long distances it’s advisable to have some cushioning in there.

In training, I consistently posted faster run times wearing the Vibrams than I did with my more-traditional New Balance 540 running shoes. Perhaps it was due to the Vibrams weighing only half as much (428g vs. 846g), perhaps it was because the Vibrams encourage you to use proper POSE form (you don’t want to land heel-first wearing those bad boys) or perhaps there was some sort of placebo effect at work there. Most likely it was a combination of all those things.

(Also, I should note there is growing evidence that you are more likely to suffer an injury running in expensive trainers than you are running barefoot, or, in the case of Vibrams, as close to barefoot as possible. The more artificial support, the weaker the foot itself becomes. See this article for more info.)

So what does all this have to do with achieving lofty goals?

The lesson I learned from all the above is this: to succeed, you must experiment with unorthodox equipment and techniques; you must try a few new things; you must think outside the box. To quote Tony Robbins:

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

Many people fall into the trap of doing something a certain way because that’s how it’s always been done, or because that’s how everyone else is doing it. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way for you to do it. Even if an alternative approach had been tried before and it didn’t work, who’s to say it won’t work at a different time? in a different situation? for a different person?

I’m actually experimenting right now, with this post. It will likely end up being the longest post I’ve ever written on here. Maybe people won’t read it because it’s so long. Only one way to find out.

So keep experimenting, trying new things, testing assumptions. And don’t be afraid to take a step backwards in the process, since that’s often the precursor to moving forward.

The Power of Focus

The last thing I want to mention here was a bit of a revelation to me. I pushed myself pretty hard through all the training, and eventually I came to notice exactly what it was that would cause my performance to suffer most during a run. It was focus, or rather, a lack thereof. Not muscle pain or any kind of physical exhaustion, but a lack of focus. When the going got tough and I was right there at my limit, my concentration was always the first thing to go.

And everything else would follow. I’d start pushing with my legs instead of pulling, my breathing would become erratic and I’d lose my forward lean. Before I knew it, I was out of the POSE method and had retreated to my old running style, which left me exerting more energy and making less progress. Downward spiral.

It was only when I checked myself and reigned back in my focus that things would start to improve. Even if my calves were burning, I could overrule that pain and keep my legs churning via intense concentration.

The experience really impressed upon me the enormous role the mind plays in physical performance. It is the master. Your body is the slave. Just be sure not to mistreat it too often or you might have hell to pay

To summarize

Three main things my experience in the 2010 Crescent City Classic taught me about goal achievement:

• Planning is half the battle
• You must leave the beaten path to find a better way
• Stay present and aware in the moment, keep your focus locked in, and you’ll kick ass

None of those things are new. You’ve probably heard similar advice before. So have I. In fact, I’ve come to believe that there are very few, if any, secrets to success. It’s all very simple, really.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Because it takes practice, hard work and discipline, most people are unwilling to apply principles like these, and that’s why most people will stay mired in mediocrity and never achieve their lofty goals.

Don’t be one of those people.

While I would highly recommend that you get your hands on this book and read it in its entirety, today I’d like to share a part of it that has stuck with me most: The Stockdale Paradox.

The Stockdale Paradox is named after admiral Jim Stockdale, who was a United States military officer held captive for eight years during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was tortured more than twenty times by his captors, and never had much reason to believe he would survive the prison camp and someday get to see his wife again. And yet, as Stockdale told Collins, he never lost faith during his ordeal: “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

Then comes the paradox: While Stockdale had remarkable faith in the unknowable, he noted that it was always the most optimistic of his prisonmates who failed to make it out of there alive. “They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

What the optimists failed to do was confront the reality of their situation. They preferred the ostrich approach, sticking their heads in the sand and hoping for the difficulties to go away. That self-delusion might have made it easier on them in the short-term, but when they were eventually forced to face reality, it had become too much and they couldn’t handle it.

Stockdale approached adversity with a very different mindset. He accepted the reality of his situation. He knew he was in hell, but, rather than bury his head in the sand, he stepped up and did everything he could to lift the morale and prolong the lives of his fellow prisoners. He created a tapping code so they could communicate with each other. He developed a milestone system that helped them deal with torture. And he sent intelligence information to his wife, hidden in the seemingly innocent letters he wrote.

Collins and his team observed a similar mindset in the good-to-great companies. They labeled it the Stockdale Paradox and described it like so:

You must retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties.

AND at the same time…

You must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

For me, the Stockdale Paradox carries an important lesson in personal development, a lesson in faith and honesty: Never doubt that you can achieve your goals, no matter how lofty they may be and no matter how many critics and naysayers you may have. But at the same time, always take honest stock of your current situation. Don’t lie to yourself for fear of short-term embarrassment or discomfort, because such deception will only come back to defeat you in the end.

Living the first half of this paradox is relatively easy, since optimism really isn’t that hard. You just choose to believe that it will all turn out for the best, and everything that happens to you is a means to that end. Simple as.

But optimism on its own can be a dangerous thing:

There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, “Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,” and an optimist who says, “Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine anyway.” Either way, nothing happens. – Yvon Chouinard

So you need to embrace the second half of the Stockdale Paradox to really make strides. You must combine that optimism with brutal honesty and a willingness to take action.

Now of course, nobody likes admitting that they’re fat, that they’re broke, that they’ve chosen the wrong career or that their marriage is falling apart. But admitting such truths is an absolute necessity if you want to grow and improve. It might feel like you’re taking a few steps backward by doing so, but you can view that retreat as the pull-back on a sling shot: you’re just setting yourself up to make significant progress down the road.

…

If you like the above post, you might be interested in reading about a recent, week-long project of mine called Random Acts of Courage. The idea was to go out every day and attempt ten different challenges, each one designed to push me out of my comfort zone. The week began with me speaking on national radio, and ended with my first Salsa class and a freshly shaved head. In between I did some street singing, lay down in a department store, flirted with the hottest girl in the room, and a whole lot more. Watch videos and read all about Random Acts of Courage here.

Perfection is an impossible goal, and you’re almost certainly setting yourself up for failure if you set out to achieve it. A much better plan is to aim for improvement. Small, constant improvements, day after day, week after week.

Don’t beat yourself up if today didn’t turn out perfectly. Ask yourself, was it better than yesterday? or was it better than this day last week? this day last year?

Besides frustration and dejection, aiming for perfection can also lead to inaction. That is, you don’t even know where to begin so you don’t begin at all. Examples of this:

• Timmy realizes that eating animal products is a pretty bad idea, but he can’t fathom the thought of eliminating all animal products from his diet. And so, he doesn’t eliminate any.
• Sally would like to help out at a local homeless shelter, but she’s worried she won’t be able to commit to helping out every Thursday night. And so, she doesn’t help out at all.

Both Timmy and Sally have analysis paralysis (also known as procrasterbation). They’re thinking it’s either all or nothing, perfection or bust. Timmy would of course be much better off if he started with something as simple as Meatless Mondays, while Sally’s help at the homeless center would surely be appreciated even on an irregular basis.

What positive change have you been postponing, telling yourself you’ll make it happen when you have more time/money/whatever? What one small step could you take immediately to move you closer to your goal?