I’ve just finished reading (one of the joys, no really, of being stuck in an aluminum tube at 45,000 feet for over 17 hours) Born to Run. While it is one of the best books I have read for some time, I’m going to resist the temptation to summarize it here, suffice as to say I’d highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in running or pushing boundaries beyond what they thought possible.
What this book does – or at least did for me – was to take what I saw as a mountain and make it into a molehill. Specifically, it took my concept of distance running (a half marathon that I was training for) and turned it upside down. It entirely changed me view of what far is – it made 100 miles seem not only doable but quite possibly easy. No mean feat when I was stiff and sore from an 11 mile run earlier in the day.
That got me thinking about Herb Elliott, one of the greatest middle distance runners of all time – he was never beaten over 1,500m or the mile. When he trained he wasn’t aiming to just beat the latest world record, he set his target way beyond it. He would run flat out and then stop at his goal time, well short of the finish. Did he ever attain that time? No, he retired disappointed, but he consistently blew away what everyone thought possible at the time.
This is a theme that is common through a lot of great sports teams and also leaders.
How often do we look to just improve a little bit from the last time we did something, or aim to be only a little bit better? Why are we constraining ourselves – in work and play - by what others believe is possible instead of rather shifting the view of what is possible?
What will be perceived as normal in 20 years? Well then let’s do it today.
