MarathonTag Archive -

The Road to Chicago (Part 4)

October 9, 2008 in Blog,Marathons with 2 Comments

The Power of a Partner

“A genuine friend encourages and challenges us to live out our best thoughts, honor our purest motives, and achieve our most significant dreams.”
-Dan Reiland
Another one of the big lessons I learned throughout the whole marathon training process was the power of a partner. Pastor Larry has been my mentor since I graduated high school in 2003. Since then we’ve done so much together and now not only is he still one of my mentors, but he is also a great friend. We decided to run this marathon together in January and we’ve taken the journey together over the past 10 months. I’ve had so many great talks with PL over our 3-4 hour long runs on Saturday mornings and I could not have done everything we’ve done if he had not been by my side.

If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in Heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.

-Matthew 18:19,20

Is there anything more important than who we take the journey of our lives with? From family, to friends, to who we marry. You will go no further in life than the people you surround yourself with. That is an absolute fact.

So ask yourself… do you have friends, family members, and a possible significant other that encourages and challenges you to live out your best thoughts, honor your purest motives, and to achieve your most significant dreams?

If not I suggest taking the advice of one professional speaker, “My friends told me I could never be a professional communicator. So I did something about it. I went out and got some new friends.”

Who are you partnering with?


The Road to Chicago (Part 3)

October 8, 2008 in Blog,Marathons with 2 Comments

The Power of a Goal
“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.”
-Denis Watley

On our last run on Saturday Pastor Larry looked at me and said, “Wow man… think about the power of a goal.” It really made me think…our goal of running a marathon caused us to run over 450 miles, 2 1/2 days, and spend a descent amount of money. All of that with the goal in mind to run 26.2 miles and cross the finish line.


I love the quote above by Dennis… it’s an absolute fact. The larger percent of people never live their life on purpose. Sure they may plan to go to college, get a good job, and support their family (which are are awesome goals). However, it stops there with most people… they refuse to set goals and things to aim at in life only to come to the end of their lives and realize they didn’t come close to reaching their potential in life or doing half the things they desired to do.

I’ll probably do a whole blog series on goals, but here are how I organize/evaluate my goals in my life. I would encourage you to create a similar system in your life!

Bucket List – These are outrageous goals (like dining with the President of the Unites States, giving away $1 million in my lifetime, visit every presidential library in the world, running a marathon, flying in an air force jet etc.). I constantly am adding to this list and looking for ways to accomplish the things that I want to do.

My Life Plan – I actually just started this one and I am pumped about it! You can read about making your own Life Plan here. I got this principle from Michael Hyatt (CEO and Founder of Thomas Nelson Publishing) and it got me fired up about doing this for my life!

Quarterly Goals – I set goals one quarter at a time. I have 7 areas in which I’ll set goals: Family/Marriage(one day), financial, personal growth, physical, professional, social, and spiritual. At the end of a quarter I’ll take a half day out of the week and get by myself…evaluate how I measured up in those areas and then set my goals for the following quarter.

End of the Year Review - This is one of my favorite things to do each year! I’ll take a ton of time in the last two weeks of the year and go through my journal, calendar, goals, etc. and evaluate my whole year. How I spent my time, what goals I accomplished, etc. and then based off that I’ll figure out how I need to spend my time in the next year, who I want to spend it with, what I want to accomplish, what I need to work on, etc..

Again, I’ll do a whole weeks worth of posts explaining what I do during these times, but I thought it might help you.

If I learned anything through marathon training it is the power of having a goal (something to shoot for) and the importance of setting them constantly in my life so I can live everyday on purpose and I’ll constantly be achieving and setting new things to shoot at in my life.

If you have goals in your life…. the discipline to see them through will come with it!

“Discipline is remembering what you want(your goals!).” -David Campbell

The Road to Chicago (Part 2)

October 7, 2008 in Blog,Marathons with 0 Comments

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”
-Jim Rohn
One of the greatest lessons I learned while training for the marathon was the power of discipline. Hearing that alarm go off at 6 a.m. and throwing on your running shoes to go out and run x number of miles, to keep running when you’d rather be in bed or at Starbucks, to not take shortcuts, and the discipline it takes to finish strong.

“Discipline is the Bridge between Goals and Accomplishments.” -Jim Rohn

I used to be the most undisciplined and lazy person you could of laid eyes on. I wouldn’t even take my dishes from the table to the dishwasher after dinner! Then I got out of high school and had my first novel thought, “In order to get something, I have to do something”. I’m serious…it was a huge revelation. I remember visiting my friend James apartment and I saw his wardrobe and I wanted it… he told me…man I worked very hard to buy all of those clothes. At this point, I realized that if I wanted in something in life that I’d have to pay a price! John Maxwell changed my life when he said you have two options in life:

“You can either pay now and play later or you can play now and pay later. Either way you’ll Pay!” -John Maxwell

Up until that point in my life I had always played… never knowing life demands a payment. From that moment on I decided that I would write out all of my goals, dreams, and ambitions in life and then discover the price it costs to pay to see them come to pass. I’ve been paying the price ever since so I can accomplish everything God put in my heart to do.

So how do I live a life of discipline? By discovering the price of my dream (whether it’s a marathon, personal growth, financial, in ministry, etc.) and going after it with everything in me. Knowing that if I’ll have the self discipline to do what I need to day in and day out, that I’ll see all of my dreams come to pass. Remember, “The secret of your success will always be found in your daily agenda.” Dave Campbell was right when he said:

“Discipline is remembering what you want.” -David Campbell

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