Hi, everybody, Cheryl Knowlton, coming at you with the last three in my series of my top 12 things I’ve learned doing 12 half marathons.
Pace yourself and break it into bite size pieces
OK, number 10: pace yourself and I remember learning years ago the adage, that I’m sure you’ve heard a million times by now, you can eat an elephant if you take it one bite at a time. 20 years ago that was a relatively new concept that was so powerful me that I went and bought a really cute stuffed elephant. I put it smack in the middle of my desk because that is something, I needed to remind myself about because I was constantly overwhelming myself with a million great ideas. When I didn’t hit all of my crazy extraordinary audacious goals, I would become very frustrated and overwhelmed and very down on myself.
So, any goal no matter what it is, if you break it down into by size pieces you can achieve it. But you have to pace yourself and don’t run too fast. My coach is always is reminding me to slow down a bit. That you are going too fast. You have to pace yourself. So that is 10.
Enjoy the journey
Number 11 is to enjoy the journey. Enjoy every aspect of the journey and sometimes that is going to mean looking back over your shoulder and thinking “look at all that I don’t have to ever do again. I have already done that. I have come this far. Now I have come this far I’ve come so far and I’ve got this much in front of me. But man, I’m so happy, to be here and not back at the starting line.” Enjoy the journey and enjoy the journey of your real estate career.
I remember the first really hard professional goal I ever set for myself. I thought,” I’m going to be happy when I hit that target. I’m not going to be happy until then. I am not going to eat. I’m not going to sleep. I’m not going to rest. That is not the recipe for success. Trust me, having made every mistake in the book. Don’t do that! Enjoying the journey. Enjoy who you are becoming in the process of getting to your ultimate destination.
Finish strong and listen to those who are cheering you on
Last, but not least, number 12: finish strong. I’m probably going to get emotional again. I cry when paint dries. But you know me well, you know that about me. My daughters told me, when I was getting ready to do my first half marathon, take your head phones off. By the way, I was doing it alone. That is another thing, I’ve run, I always do half marathons by myself. That’s a story for another day.
They said, “take off your headphones when you’re coming up to the 100 yards. When you start to see people. They’ve got bells. They’ve got all of their noisemakers, signs. They’re cheering and clapping. Take off your headphones so you can really truly hear it.” Makes me emotional thinking about that.
My amazing coach, I adore so much, Darryl Davis, actually talked about this when he ran his first full marathon. He talked about how the cheering and clapping people catch him going and saw him through to the finish line. So many lessons in that for us as, real estate professionals or in any profession that we’re in. Finish strong and listen to the people who are cheering for you, clapping for you, who’ve been your cheerleaders of all along. Just soak that in and celebrate it.
OK I’ve got my 13th coming up and so after I do that race, I will certainly have another lesson that I have learned that I will enthusiastically share with you, but for now those are my 12 tips for how to run a half marathon at which also equates to how to build a successful real estate business. Until next time, will see you then.