I’m going back through old emails I’d written for ideas. And I came across this one I had to share. I wrote this in 2017. That’s important.
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A year and half ago I ran my first 1/2 marathon. I was at my skinniest and things were good. The problem is time. It’s hard to be gone for 4 hours on a sunday to train. Or out of the house at 4:45 to get a run in before work. So, I let it slide.
Now I’m back to about my heaviest and out of shape. I know I need to get back, but finding the time is tough. (Or is it an excuse?)
About a month ago I started to make some earnest effort and go running again. I was doing one or two runs a week of about 2 or 3 miles. Not sitting on the couch eating chips, but not exactly killing it either.
A few weeks ago I read this book called Living with a SEAL. Jessie Itzler, millionaire, entrepreneur and marathon runner met an ex Navy Seal at a 24 hour race. Jessie showed up excited with his team. Each guy would run a few miles then they would tag out and the next guy would go. They would keep this up for 24 hours.
This ex SEAL showed up with no team. A bottle of water and a box of crackers. That’s it.
Eventually Jessie meets the guy and asks him to spend a month living and training him. For the sake of privacy he uses the name Seal instead of his real name.
From the day I started the book I started running further and faster than I had been. In the past 10 days I’ve run 43 miles. That’s an avg of 4.3 miles per day! That is huge!. And the only difference is in my head.
At one point I think it’s on day 2 or 3 Jessie and Seal had to travel for business and wound up getting caught in snowstorm. They had to stay out of town for an extra day. The following morning Seal is ready for their run.
“SEAL, I have a problem,” I say to him. “I didn’t bring any extra underwear.”
“So what?”
“I can’t run without underwear.”
“Nah, bro, you can’t run without legs. It’s on.”
Can you feel the shift. My mind just started racing. What am I holding back on. Why aren’t I doing all the work I can do. POW!
During that run Jessie tells a now funny but at the time very difficult story. At about mile 4 he felt pain between his legs from the friction of running without underwear.
He puts his hand in his pants and it comes out with blood on it.
“Seal my nuts are bleeding.” Jessie says.
“I don’t give a F**K about your tiny nuts” is Seals only response and he keeps right on running.
Are you kidding me. How much of a total wimp am I. I have a little blister on my toe and I’m out for a week.
I start jumping to all of my excuses for not getting to work.
– It’s to cold
– It’s to hot
– You Know I’m a little sleepy
– Get up a little earlier are you crazy?
– I’ll get it tomorrow.
– Left my headphones at home. I can’t work without my music.
– I only have 30 minutes. I can barely get started in 30 minutes.
Get to work. It’s nice to have everything just the way you like it, but cut it out and get to work.
Why aren’t you studying the way you should? What else are you wimping out on?
Need some help pushing it when you’re tired. Use The Final Step for the active phase of studying.
Did this email make you think you can do more, you want to set up your studying the best way, just how you like it try Maximize Your Time and Efficiency.
Brian Wallace
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The important part here for me is that yesterday I was looking over my own personal lab work. I just had it done, and it was the worst it’s ever been. Glucose at 102. I’m not even going to share what my triglycerides were. BP 130/80.
I was looking through my history and saw that in 2017 my numbers were all ideal. It turns out I had really cranked up my running and was working toward (but got injured) a full marathon. Funny that I should come across this old email today.
Lacing up my shoes and getting to work.
Brian Wallace