In cycling, the riders clump together in the pack of the peloton. Except the champions: they break away from the pack and win the Yellow Jersey and the title.
In distance races for running, the goal is to have kick and break away from the pack. Every mile matters, every step is a difference maker over the distance. But it is who has the reserves of emotion and strength at the end that determines who breaks the tape and the records.
Break away.
Lead from the very front, and push yourself against yourself instead of the other competitors. Don’t look at them or what they do.
Celebrate your victories. You earned the accolades. But a celebration should take less time than the actual act of winning. Don’t have a good day and take the next month off. Bask in the moment, then start working on your next win so that you recapture that fleeting moment of glory and ecstasy. Champions get back into the gym immediately after they win, because they are still starving for excellence and victory. They also know that the wolf on top of the mountain, at the pinnacle, is rarely as hungry as the one climbing the mountain.
Truly exceptional businesspeople and athletes are addicted to the rush of victory AND the grinding work needed to achieve it.
David Goggins was in the gym a few hours after a mission, and someone asked him why he wasn’t resting and what was wrong with him. “You will never understand what is wrong with me” was his response as he put in the work to become better.
Kobe Bryant, even when injured, would train and watch tape to hone his skills.
Gravity draws bodies towards the largest masses. It takes focused energy to overcome this attraction, to achieve escape velocity and reach orbit, to break away from the unseen bonds that hold us down.
Break away.
It takes effort to get out of bed at o’dark thirty and train. The Rock does it daily. Do you?
It takes will power to consistently sacrifice going out with your buddies and instead go home and study for your CFP or CCIM or LLM. Break away from the pack mentality to do things they can’t comprehend. Then you can live the life they can only dream about, because you deferred happiness and compounded it.
Average is a disappointment. Excellence should be your standard.
2nd place is the first loser.
Be different. Be better. Expect the best from yourself, and make the sacrifices to be the best you possible.
Break away from the underperformance of your past.
Be Better.
Break away.
