There are three overlapping habits for those who excel in their fields: they exercise regularly, read often, and wake up early.
Each activity forces the participant to push themselves through something that isn’t necessarily pleasant.
Waking up at 5 a.m. may not spark joy.
Neither may exhausting your muscles lifting weights or finishing a marathon when you’d rather watch Netflix.
The skill of pushing through temporary pain transfers to all facets of life, from struggling through a complex book or closing a sale with a jackass customer.
That pain is temporary.
A dropped vase will likely shatter, but a child who trips and falls on the pavement will survive. Humans are anti-fragile– they thrive under pressure and bumps and scrapes and bruises.
In the Dip by Seth Godin, he explains there’s an initial learning curve to all activities: starting a new job, learning a language, or more.
It’s when you hit the gym, lifting 10-pound weights while a high schooler beside you is easily clearing triple your weight.
It’s working on a huge story, but the government repeatedly blocks “public records” by billing you $5,000 for a few emails (I’m looking at you, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services).
The Dip is when you cramp up and your calves are screaming around mile 18 or 20 of a marathon, but once you can eye the finish line, the discomfort can’t compare to achieving your goal.
Humans are wired to stay in their comfort zones, but real progress– whether in your job or personal life– can’t be reached unless you exert oneself more past what you think is possible.
Humans are both their personal trainer and the person begging not to add an extra ten pounds to your bench press.
But physical strength is built by micro muscle tears, as is psychological strength is honed by extreme pressure.
Long-term focus is one of life’s greatest secret weapons.
I first noticed this connection as an undergraduate at Hillsdale College, where nearly all of my economics professors also ran marathons.
Those professors had slogged through years of education: economics Ph. Ds, aerospace engineering degrees, and years of absolutely shredding surf music, and were no stranger to delayed gratification.
Gary Wolfram ran 85-90 miles per week for decades.
For Charles Steele, a professor who’s taught on multiple continents, marathons are “too short.”
Shifting our focus to long-term makes temporary pain more bearable and teaches that you can always achieve more than you believe you can. Steele explains:
“[Ultra running] has taught me that my limits — whatever they are — are much greater than I thought, and the only way I know is to explore them,” Steele told the Collegian.
“It’s that endurance mentality and the understanding that when you’re trying to accomplish something it may take a very, very long time,” Steele said. “ Anytime I take a step it is so small that it’s insignificant. It’s nothing against 100 miles. Yet, you keep doing one more one more and eventually you’ve run 100 miles. Always push forward and make progress.”