Week 008- Discipline & Patience
It often takes months to reap rewards.
In the last couple of months, I committed to begin training for some of the world’s hardest endurance events like GoRuck Selection and running 100-mile ultra marathons.
It sounds intense but it doesn’t have to be as much as you think it will be. Two principles are important:
Patience
Discipline
Patience and discipline often go together. If you’re impatient, you will likely become undisciplined in whatever you do. Impatience will cause you to want to take shortcuts and expedite the process.
The truth is, there’s no way to expedite the process. Nothing teaches you about that more than doing endurance events.
The entire purpose of an endurance event is to endure. It’s not only from the event itself but it’s from the training for the event.
If you expedite the process and endure nothing throughout training, what makes you think that you’re going to succeed in the event?
You’re not going to succeed. At least not in the way that you wanted.
Patience And Discipline Make Succeeding Better
There’s not much fulfillment in succeeding in anything that comes easy to you. You’re playing a video game on easy mode. It’s fun for a moment but after a while, you need to up the level of difficulty.
This is how I feel about wanting to do races like the Western States 100 and a grueling event like GoRuck Selection.
It takes long term planning and discipline to succeed. I cannot allow myself to slack for a month or even a couple weeks. A day off is probably okay but taking a day off that’s not intentional can slip into taking a week off.
There will be periods where training will be lighter but I have to make sure that I maintain my level of fitness.
I will have to run a 100 mile ultra marathon in 2025 to qualify for the 2026 Western States and even then, I might not get in since it’s a lottery race. Every year, I will have to run a 100 mile qualifier to have the chance to get my lottery ticket.
It seems like madness to keep doing this for 5-7 years without gaining entry from the lottery but that happens to some people. They’re relentless in their discipline to make sure that they will have a shot at doing the race of their dreams.
And that’s what it’s all about, being relentless in chasing your dreams.