Robert Ta started running four months ago as deliberate practice for doing hard things. He ran a half marathon in week one, attempted a full marathon the next week and walked after 21 miles. He connects the physical challenge to entrepreneurship: take one step at a time, reframe difficult tasks as doable, and teach yourself to enjoy demanding work.
I started running four months ago. Week one, I ran a half marathon that did 12 miles. Week two, I tried for a self supported full marathon. I got to about 2122 miles and then I walked the rest. That hurt. And I didn't even like running. So why did I do it? I did it because my mission in life is to empower everybody on the planet to become their best selves. So I'm a startup founder. I find that businesses are really just about who survives and who keeps going versus who goes fastest. How can I train my brain to enjoy doing things I don't like? Always take one step, one foot in front of the other and teach yourself how to enjoy doing hard things you don't like doing. New thing I gotta do for startup life, don't know how to do it. Seems hard. Seems like I want to avoid it. Well, I was able to do a marathon my second week of running, so why not this? And entrepreneurship is a lot of that. It's just getting these ticks off. You can look at that and you're like, well, whatever in front of me is not so bad because what's behind me was even worse. And that was my own choice.
