#20 The Art of Running (Part 1)

One runner told of a mantra his older brother, also a runner, had taught him, which he's pondered ever since he began running. Here it is. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you're running and you start to think, man, this hurts. I can't take anymore. The hurt part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself. This pretty much sums up the most important aspect of marathon running. It's been some 10 years since I first had the idea of a book about running, but the years went by with me trying out one different approach after another, never actually settling down to write it. Running is sort of a vague theme to begin with, and I found it hard to figure out exactly what I should say about it. At a certain point though, I decided that I should just write honestly about what I think and feel about running and stick to my own style. I figured that was the the only way to get going, and I started writing the book bit by bit in the summer of 2005, finishing it in the fall of 2006. Other than a few places where I quote from previous writings, I've done the bulk of this book records my thoughts and feelings in real time. One thing I noticed that was writing honestly about running and writing honestly about myself are nearly the same thing. So I suppose it's alright to read this as a kind of memoir centered on the act of running. That is an excerpt from the very beginning of the book, what I talk about When I talk About Running A Memoir by Haruki Murakami. And it's a really good book right now. So far it's just all about running. I am about 70 pages into this book and I have hand selected a couple of quotes. I have about 19 different highlights that I've kept track in my Readwise app, which you can go use my link below to get two months for free. But anyways, this is a really, really good book. I've actually recently gotten to running. I've run probably 17 miles in the last two to three weeks. So just something I'm getting into training for a 5K. But it's really inspiring reading from this guy who's a novelist. So this guy Marakami, he's this like insane novelist and writer and he basically, he just, he is one of the world's like best fiction writers, like sold millions and millions of copies I think, you know, hundreds of thousands of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. So this guy is very top of the line and so he runs on the side, so he was saying like how he has run marathons, how he's done all these different things. And I thought it was just really interesting to read this book. And so I just want to go through all these different things that I've kind of highlighted in, in this fascinating book. It's really, really good book. One of the best that just is. It's just very good. So let's start with the first one. So pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. So pain, pain is very, I would call these maxims, by the way. So pain, it is very hard. Pain is always gonna happen. It's gonna happen in your life, whether it's in your job. This is what we were talking about in Uncommon Moments, which is all based on this quote. It was a five minute podcast episode, actually the last one before this episode. So pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. It's all a mental game, it's all a mental challenge. So what you do decides. Well, it pains always gonna happen, whether it's in your job, your family. Just everything that you do is going to be, you know, there's going to be some level of pain and you're going to, you can increase that pain and get over something harder and have a bigger reward and achievement, but it's really reframing something. And I was listening to Chris Williamson on Modern Wisdom and he was talking about if you were in a scenario where you were, your heart rate was up, you were laying on the floor right after a workout and you were just, you know, you have this feeling of accomplishment and you're like, you know, sweating all this stuff. You're all this stuff you get after a workout, right? You would feel accomplished. But if you had that same feeling, if you were driving in a car, you would have a totally different reaction. You'd probably check into the hospital, all that stuff. So that whole suffering is optional part, it's all a mental challenge game. It's all a mental reframing of the actual problem, which is pain. And I think that's a very important thing to keep in mind while we go through this where it's like, yes, pain is inevitable. It's going to happen there. You know, people are going, you're going to lose loved ones. You're going to go through hard times. Whether or not, like, whatever that is, it's going to happen. But it's your mental reframing. Naval talks about finding the positive in every single situation, which is really hard to do. You know, easy to say, hard to do, trying to find that good thing and saying I'm. I'm forgetting what he says. But it's like, you know, always ask in every situation, what is the good or. Yeah, what's the good outcome or the positive thing that can come out of this? So remember, suffering is optional. You don't have to suffer. It also goes along with, you know, choosing. Choosing what you do. Right. The thing that kind of goes with pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional is what I just read. So say you're running and you start to think, man, this hurts. I can't take anymore. The hurt is part of an unavoidable reality. But whether or not you can stand anymore is up to you, right? It's up to the runner himself. And that pretty much sums up long distance running. It sums up life, though, when you think about it, right? You're gonna get. Keep. What is it Mike Tyson says? You know, everyone wants to do something. I'm, you know, botching this quote, but basically, oh, yeah, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. That's what Mike Tyson said, right? Where you just keep getting punched in the face. And whether or not you say, oh, you know, I mean, whether or not you give up, that's on you, right? Every. Like, it's just going to happen. You're going to get injured, you're going to get. All these things are going to happen, but you can choose whether or not you keep going. And I think that's just a really important reminder. The next one is that he talks about. I didn't put a page number on this, which is interesting, but he, he says, I'm at an ordinary, or perhaps more like mediocre, Mediocre, mediocre level. But that's not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. I love that. Because even if you're not the best in something, competing with yourself, especially with him and running, it's all about competing with himself. Is he getting better times? Is he doing better than he first was? Is he doing better than yesterday? The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. That's what he says. I just love that where he's like dialed in of not, you know, beating other people. He's. He wants to beat himself and push himself. I just love that idea of high agency or high purpose or this sense of ownership. Kind of what Jocko Willink talks about where having. Being a good leader and keeping yourself accountable. Right? It really, really interesting. So now, now we're going to go through this kind of cross chronological order of like page 10. I have all these highlights on certain pages, and I'm just gonna go through each one. So this is the first part of a quote that I wanted to say by itself, but then I have a second part to it. So what's crucial is whether your writing attains the standards you've set for yourself. Again, it goes back to that idea of setting the standards for yourself. And he's this writer. So for him, it's. What's crucial is whether your writing attains the standards you set for yourself. Think about it. In whatever profession you do, whether that's, you know, like social media or working out or whatever you. Whatever you do, whoever you are, what's crucial is whether or not whatever you do attains the standards that you set for yourself. If it's unreasonably high, you're going to fail higher than everyone else, right? And something that he continues on saying is, failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. When it comes to other people. You can always come up with a reasonable explanation, but you can't fool yourself in this sense. Writing novels and running full marathons are very much alike. Basically, a writer has a quiet inner motivation and doesn't seek validation in the outwardly visible. There's so much to unpack in that little quote, but you just go through it, right? Failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. Again, goes back to having that personal agency saying, hey, you. You cannot fool yourself. You can easily say, oh, make excuses to this person, this person, this person. But you know deep down inside of you why you didn't do that. And it goes into, you can't fool yourself. You can always fool all these other people. But did you reach that bar? You know, you can easily explain to other people, oh, I can reach it, because this, this, this, this, this. But it's all about personal agency. And he. He's comparing it like writing novels and running full marathons. They're very much alike. And I love what he says just in this last part. Basically, a writer has a quiet inner motivation and doesn't seek validation in the outwardly visible. Just. Just hover on that for a second. Quiet. So having a quiet inner motivation, you have an inner drive and inner motivation, but you don't seek validation. And the outwardly visible, you don't go out and try to show it off to other people. You. You do it in the quiet. Kobe did this, right? Where Kobe grind in the quiet. Actually, funny story. Before we go deeper into that, um, Kobe had this thing called blackout runs where he would run. And he asked this guy. This guy was training with him, and he was like, hey, do you want to go for a run? So they started running on the beach, and they went for miles and miles and miles. And basically it was a blackout run. So you run until you black out or you pass out. And he was like, oh, yeah, we're just gonna go to this house. We're just gonna run to this guy's house that I know. So they started running and they just kept on going. And he would also have blackout workouts where you would, like, you know, push yourself until you black out. But that. That's just a side note because basically, it's all about working in the quiet where people don't see you. Right? That's where you're going to get better. Not this social life or, you know, like, if you're showing your life out in front of everyone, that can hold you back. I think it's a better motivation to do it for yourself than it is for other people. So the next one is at least that's why I've put in the effort day after day to raise my own level. It just goes again to the same point, you know, I'm gonna read again. At least that's why I've put in the effort day after day to raise my own level. It's all about your own level. Are you going to raise your bar to the next standard to do better? Are you going to raise that bar to do even better? Right. It's all about personal agency. If you don't have personal agency, get someone in your life that does and can keep you accountable. And if they can do that, that's great. Ultimately, you want to see yourself succeed. And doing. By doing that, you're allowing yourself to work on all this stuff, and you're going to get far better. Right. The next thing that he says is he talks about this whole thing about being authentic to yourself and what that looks like. So the fact that I'm me and no one else is. Is one of my greatest assets. Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent. What he's talking about here is he says that the fact that you. That I am myself there, I'm a 1 out of 8 billion. Like, I. The chances of being me are one of the greatest. Like, it's just incredibly great. So the fact that I'm me and no one else is, like, no one else can be me. No one else is me is one of my greatest assets. David Sinner talks about this, all these founders talk, talk about this. And it's one of the most important assets that you can probably, that you shouldn't overlook. And the, the next thing that is really interesting and what we need to draw attention to is the second part of this where he talks about emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to become independent or be independent. I think it's just, it's interesting. It goes along with this idea of not being a people pleaser, don't please people. But sometimes what that means is being independent kind of going lone wolf or doing this thing. It requires this. It has emotional hurt, which is the price you have to pay. And that might mean distancing yourself. It might mean there's some friends. Chris Williamson talks about this thing called the Lonely Chapter where you have your old group of friends and they have bad habits, they have all this stuff and you're trying to get away from that. So you kind of grow out of that. You grow out of these friends and you go into this new, I would say area. And so you go into this new chapter of your life, or at least you're trying to, but you still haven't found these new group of friends that you want to become. Like all that stuff that keep you accountable, all that. So you're, you grew out of these old friends and now you're going to these, you know, you're trying to find new friends, a new friend group, but you're in the middle right now. And it might take years and years and years, but you're, you know, you're in this thing called the Lonely Chapter. I thought it was really interesting because that's something a lot of people can experience. And when you're trying to grow out of that, it's pretty hard to find a good, supportive friend group that aligns with your values and what you believe. And so it's just, it should be an encouragement for you to go out and just do that. Right. The next thing is what he talks about is, I just figured though that since failure was not an option, I had to give it everything I had. I really like that because he's saying it goes back to suffering is optional. The runner can decide if he, you know, falls down to the ground or if he stands up or if he keeps going. He, he's saying that failure is not an option. And he, he set that bar for himself to give it everything he had. I just love that because it's a good motivational, like, go do it. Go get after it. Go. Go get that. Just give it everything you have. It's a really good reminder, actually, like, even for me, go, give it everything you have. The next one is, I'm the kind of person who has to totally commit to whatever I do. I just don't. I just couldn't do something clever like writing a novel while someone else ran the business. I had to give it everything I had. If I failed, I could accept that. Something that I'm noticing now as I'm reading this quote is the very last part where he says, if I failed, I could accept that. I think it is a really interesting idea where if you keep at something long enough, you go for it. If you fail, I mean, being willing to say, like, hey, I tried for my dreams. I did this. This was something I wanted to do. This is something I love to do. I would say even failing is better than being in that comfortable zone. And what. This comfortable zone is the way I think it was. Again, Chris, that talked about this, but basically what it is, is it's not bad enough to where you're going to do something about it, but it's not good enough to where you're living the happiest life you've ever had. So you're kind of in the middle. You're in your comfort zone. Your. Your life isn't amazing. You don't have it all figured out. You're not the happiest you've ever been. You're not. You're not there. You're actually kind of unsatisfied, but you're not unsatisfied to the point where you actually want to go make that change. That's something that a lot of people fall into where they. They kind of get stuck in the middle. And you have to have. You cannot fall into that temptation of. Of going, you know, too far in, like, where it's just so bad that you have to do something, you know, because that's you. You would either want it to become so bad that you have to do something to get yourself out of that. That mud or that slop or whatever that is, or, and, or. Or you would want it to be so good that you're. You're trying to keep doing what you're doing and you're successful and you're living a happy life. I'd rather have either one of those two things than being in the middle where I'm just comfortable living my life. It's not good. It's not perfect. It's just miserable, but it's not miserable enough. To where I don't do anything to get out of it. That would be terrible. And I think that's something that you need to be cautious of when you're learning about these people. Like, you could. The thing is, you could learn about all these people. You could listen to this whole podcast episode. You could go listen to as many podcast episodes you want to. You could read as many books you want to. You could listen to the whole. You could go to ChatGPT right now, look up every single piece of information on the Internet, learn as much as you want. But if you do not apply that to your life, you're going to get nothing, nothing out of this. It all goes down to applying it to your life, taking the simple distilled ideas and putting it into your life. Because if you do not do that, you could learn. You could read those 10,000 books that Charlie Munger read. You could read as much as I do, or David Sinner does. You could listen to all the podcasts in the world, be the most knowledgeable person. But if you do not apply it to your life, you know, there's, you know, you're not going to get anywhere, right? It's like, why read the Bible if you're not going to get saved? I mean, you can still read it. You can still become like this Jordan Peterson type figure where you read it and you study it and you try to look at all the little pieces, but if you don't actually apply it to your life, you, you won't get saved. I mean, I think it's just a really important idea, right? You know, why would you do, why would you go somewhere? Why? It's all about being intentional, right? Like, why would you go to church, why would you go to school, why would you go to college? Why would you go to this vacation, to this one place, or travel for that workshop or travel to that business meeting or the, the caller, like, what? Why would you take that call? Everything has to be intentional because you're not. Just in this flow of life, you, you need to be intentional. You, you got to give it your all. And that, that's just something that I, I think you just need to remember, you know, whether I'm talking to myself, whether I'm talking to you guys, you just gotta remember that, right? Where you can't get, you can't settle for that mediocre, a mediocre level where you're not doing amazing or like, you, like, I'd rather be doing either having the happiest life ever or, you know, having A hard life and trying to get out of that because either one of those is successful in my mind, where if it's bad enough, you're going to do something about it and try to earn that success and work hard. If you're, if you have that success, you, you've made it and, you know, steward it well. And then if you're in the middle, that's the most dangerous of them all. That's the worst. And, and that is the, that people don't think of it as the worst, but it is. And you just gotta remember that. So that's something I just want to put out there because I think it's really important for future, for future podcast episodes and it's just a really good reminder. The next one is I knew that if I did things half heartedly and they didn't work out, I'd always have regrets. It goes back to the same thing we were just talking about. If you're not full heart into it, you know, if you're not, you know, if you like, it'd be better to have full interest or zero interest rather than half interest. Because if you go full interest, you're all the way into it. If you have zero interest, don't even, don't even dip your toe into it. Matthew McConaughey said this. If you're gonna say you're gonna do something, you go do it. You know, you don't dip your toe in, you don't say, oh, I tried this out for a little bit, now I'm not doing that. No, you, you go fast, full at it, you go into it and that's what you do. And so again, the same thing. I'd rather go full into it or half and or zero into it than half heartedly into it. And, you know, and if it didn't work out, then I, he said I'd always have regrets. The next one is whenever I was able to do something I like to do, or whenever I was able to do something I like to do, though when I wanted to do it and the way I wanted to do it, I'd give it everything I had. It's just another reminder, right? If you find something that you like to do, you want to do it, and you find the way that you want to do it, just go for it. Go 100% into it. If you have a mission, you have a drive, you know what you want to do for the rest of your life, go into it. Go full force. I was listening to this book called Managing Oneself by Peter F Drucker and, and Tai Lopez says it's one of the best books he's ever read. I listened to just this one. I listened to the whole book. It's really short, 72 pages or like 60 something pages long, 45 minutes audible version ended up being like 30 something minutes for me. And it just goes back to the same thing, right? If you give it everything you have, if you just go full force, if you have that mission statement, if you like to do it, then you'll just go for it, right? And it just. That's a really good book. You should listen to it. I'm kind of forgetting the main idea right now, but it's a really important idea. That is just something you need to go for. You should go buy it. Great book. But if you'd like to do something and you really want to do it, if you have that motto you like, oh, he said that you should find out what you want to do for pretty much the rest of your life or the job you want to go in, go into by your 20s, you should, you should have it all figured out. By your 20s, you should be able to say, hey, I want to do this, this and this and that. That's in your 20s. So just remind, like, reminder, if you're young, just do it in your 20s. Figure out what you want to do. The next thing is, from elementary school up to college, I was never interested in things I was forced to study. This is actually a complaint I have with school in general, with college, elementary school, high school, all of it. The thing is, you know, I'm 17, I go to school, I read in my off time, I talk to kids or I, sorry, Peers, classmates my age, they say, you know, I ask them, hey, when's the last time you read a book? They said, oh man, it's. Some people are like, it's been years. Some people, it's like, man, I don't even remember the last time I read a book. They don't have that to do in their off time. So for me, I'm like a one out of however many kids there are in my high school. And you know, that's not in any way saying, hey, I'm better than these people. Not at all. I'm just saying that the thing is they force you to study. And I think, you know, Haruki Murakami is making an excellent point where you're forcing kids to study. And if you're not interested in it, like if you're forcing people to study, then you're, you're tending, like, why is there such a stereotype about having bored kids in school? Well, it's because they don't want to learn about that stuff. These kids are passionate about something, whether it's sports, whether it's reading, whether it's business, whether it's any. But when they're forced to have to study something, and I'm not saying that, don't force them to study things. That's not at all what I'm saying because you might have to force something on to someone for a little bit before they actually learn to love it. Or like, they have to try it out. If they, you know, know to love it, but they wouldn't try it out just because of the natural tendency of a child or, you know, a person that goes to school. And so I think some of it's great. But I'm just saying that if you're forcing people to study things, like you go to college and you have to take these three different classes in order to get your degree that you have no interest in, it's wasting your time. You're not, you're naturally not going to be interested in it unless you're, you know, that's just a thing that you learn to love or something like that. And it's not a complaint, it's just a suggestion to, you know, do your, like, read those books outside of school. Like, prioritize, self agency, self priority, priority, prioritization, whatever the word is, self priority over yourself to get those things done. And I think that's just a really good reminder that if you have that, I mean, because the moment you have pressure and you, the moment you have things to do and you do it in school and then the moment it, it gets all taken away and then you don't have it, you don't have that anymore, it could just all fall away. But if you learn the skills in your own time, you learn how to run, you learn how to read those books, you learn how to podcast, or you learn how to do all these different things, then it will actually stick with you. And after high school or after college or after whatever schooling you're doing, I think that's just a good reminder. And also start young, start learning about something that you really love to do. I mean, most kids, I remember back in the day when I used to read fiction, I read fiction books for fun. And then school just came along and hammered like, hey, we're reading this, reading this, reading this. And you know, again, this is not a rant on school. I'm Just saying that it. They, they came in and they said, hey, we want to learn. We want you to learn about this, this, this, this, this. And I'm like, all right, great. But now I don't have time for this. So that just fell away. And then now I'm, this last year, first year, coming back and saying, hey, I'm gonna read all these books. I, I'm 20 books out of 24 read. And, you know, two on the way, because I'm reading. Well, technically three that I'm reading right now. Four, I guess if you count three books in person and one in Audible or three hardcover. But the thing is about it is that it's so, it's, you know, you really need to take responsibility and really take personal ownership to get those things done. And that's just something that you need to keep in mind if you're going to college or going to school, because this podcast is primarily for younger people that want to be successful, want to own that business, want to do things. The thing is, you are not alone. You and I am in the same boat as you. You are not alone. And if for any reason, you know, if for any reason you ever want to talk, you can just put a comment on this podcast episode. I'd love to talk, but you are not. You are in the same boat as me. And the thing is, with school, it's just natural. It's going. Stephen Bartlett talked about this. He was a kid. They said that, man, you're never gonna do anything in your life. You're not like all these other kids. You're actually. They, they called him this. They called him, and they were like, hey, you're not like these other kids. And he was just like, I'm just interested in business. Like, what? I just want to build things. I want to do things. And so they literally, like, put him, they, like, separated him from all the kids and just, you know, made him go to probably summer school. I, I, I'm forgetting everything. But they had all this stuff going, and it was so sad because for him, he's, like, trying to learn, he's trying to grow. But the, his, you know, his society around him is, like, suppressing that and pushing against it. And again, it's not a rant on school. I'm just saying that the kids who are feeling like that or the people that are feeling like that, or if you've ever felt like that in your life, just know that you're not alone. And this is part of the founder's journey. This is part of of building a business, you're going to have to go through that. You're going to have to get out of that friend group and go into just being by yourself and doing this somewhat alone. You're going to need a committee of people or a support group. But just remember it's going to happen and you got to be prepared for it. So that's all I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to prepare for you. The next one is I only began to enjoy studying after I got through the educational system and became a so called member of society again. It's the same thing. You enjoy studying when you do it yourself, you, you start learning. It's all about, you know, I put together this mission statement and something that I said was I want to be. I, I am a curious individual. I have curiosity. That's something that is born inside of me. And that's why I'm actually, I'm going to do something big for my podcast. But I want to talk to people, I want to interview people. I want, uh, I want to, I want to get to know others. And I think I have this. I have two sides to me where I read a book, I can learn from history as the greatest founders, entrepreneurs, ideas, thinkers, all this. But another thing is I want to interview and I want to talk to real like I just want to talk to anyone wiser than me. And the way that I do that is by asking questions and being curious. And so in whatever society you're in, just be curious and learn. Study about any. Study anything you're interested in and just go for that. The next thing is if something interested me and I could study it at my own pace and approached it the way I liked it or the way I liked. I was pretty efficient at acquiring knowledge and skills. Again, it's all about like your own pace though, the way you like it. If you are interested in something, go for it. Just start learning about it. Figure out if that's for you. If it's not, you know, don't worry, no worries. Go do something else. Figure out something else. If you really like it, pursue a job in that, pursue, you know, if you are very ambitious and you are a highly ambitious individual, you will go work for someone. You will work for someone for free because of what you want to learn. And again, it might take some getting used to for doing that. But the thing is you're going to get to that point where Daniel briefly talks about this. You want to study under an entrepreneur or founder, if that's what you want to do start a business. You want to study under an entrepreneur or founder for two years, learn kind of the ropes. How do they do social media, how do they do marketing, how do they do their financial system? All this stuff. You want to learn all those things and then you want to go into, all right, well, I learned all that. Now let me try to figure out really, like, let me do it. Let me try to figure out all these other things. And so then after a couple of years, you leave, you start your own business, right? So the thing is, start learning that thing and go, you know, become so tenacious or ambitious that you're like, hey, you know, I want to step out of my comfort zone. Hey, I'll work for this entrepreneur or I'll work for this person that I admire for free. I just want to learn stuff about this business and go do an internship for like three to six months or couple years and just learn your way around it. And I think it's just really important. So that's just a placement. Just remember that and that will really help you. And that really shows you. And that's something that Alex Hormozi talks about all the time, so you can go check him out, too. The next thing is, I'm struck by, by how you really need to prioritize in life, figuring out in what order you should divide up your time and energy. If you don't get that sort of system set by a certain age, you'll lack focus and your life will be out of balance. I think this is a good reminder that you really need to figure out what you prioritize in life. You have a systems ranking, and not like a bad systems ranking, but a healthy, good systems ranking. So I put this person, I put this second and this third, and in that way I can love this person more. I can do this better for someone else. Right? So figure out what order you should divide up your time and energy. What is your main focus? What is all this? But the thing is, if you don't get that sort of system set by a certain age, let's just say it's like your 20s, right? You're going to lack focus and your life will be out of. Out. Out of balance. And I would almost argue that you will lack focus and your life will be out of balance for the rest of your life. Unless you can get it figured out. Right. Because, you know, I would say about the age of 30, because that's, you know, that I. Yeah, if you don't get that sort of system set By a certain age. Because the thing is, health catch ups, health can catch up to you. All these things can catch up to you. And if you don't have that focus, that drive, that ambition, your life will be out of balance. And you're just gonna like that focus and concentration and drive that you want to have, but you're just missing this thing. Going back to kind of the whole school conversation, but you know, just more broader concept is really short. In other words, you can't please everyone. I just want to let that sit because it's just so, so amazing. In other words, you can't please everybody. It's so simple and yet there's an elegance about that quote where it's just when you think about it, getting away from that group of friends, starting that business, doing things that are self, you know, self ownership, high agency, personal, like it's all, it's a, like it's for you, all this stuff, you can't please everybody. And that, that's just a good reminder for you where it's like, if you want to take a leap out of your comfort zone, you might lose some friends. You're not going to please everyone. You might have to lose those friends. You might have to break that relationship. You might have to, whatever it is, you can't please everyone. And that doesn't mean like, do something selfish. Do something. Like if you know, you're on the path of building that business of making, you know, your life successful or being happier or you, you like, it has to come down to you, right? You have to make that decision. You can't have someone else dictating your life and saying, hey, do this, do this, do that, like all that. You got to do it. And in other words, you can't please everyone. There's going to be people that hate you and you can't let them. Like, you know, there's a lot of people online that get a lot of hate and all this stuff and they, if they were in that position and they allowed those people to, if they try to please everyone, they would be all over the map because everyone has a preference. Just focus on your goal, your mission. And this one actually goes back to the school conversation. The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can't be learned at school. You know, I was talking to someone the other day and he was saying, yeah, like the most important things that I learned are actually outside of school. Like it's doing the sports, it's doing the learning, it's Doing like it just, it is. And the thing is, and this goes back to even podcasts, this is why reading, books, podcast episodes, all this, it's, it's great, you're learning, but what's the problem? Well, Alex Hormozi says this, where you could listen to this podcast episode and you could listen to all these different things about all this stuff. But the thing is it, it's that you can't, it's all scenario based. And what do I mean by that? Well, it's all scenario based. So it's like, alright, well what if you were in this scenario, had this much money and you had this many users and this many customers and you had 10% tax rate and you had all this, all this stuff, it's all scenario based and you're like, alright, what would I do if I was here or here or here. And great, you're making reps, you're doing the reps, you're, you know, it's like a bench press. You're, you're getting those reps in, right? But the thing is, if you just go out in real life and you do the thing, it's probably better than actually just learning about it because if you go out and do the thing you're actively learning, it is actually one of the most, it is one of the best ways of learning that you can do is just going out because it's a different hands on experience, but it's also just full on. It's a different way of learning. It actually sticks in your brain a lot more. Like how much more do you learn from being in school versus actually being at your job and like working hands on, doing the things with the people, talking with people, you learn a lot more and you go accustomed to those ways a lot more and a lot better than you do in school or in a different situation. I just think it's a great thing to keep in mind. The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things cannot be learned at school. We have a couple more, two more quotes. He said that I made it a point of pride that no matter how hard things might get, I never walked. A marathon is a running event after all, not a walking event. He was talking about the New York City Marathon where he ran and it was so hard that his legs started cramping so bad that he couldn't run the rest of the race. So for three miles he was just limping along and his legs finally got better and he started running and he said that it was really hard. And the reason why was because his leg started cramping. He. He kept going, but for three miles he was just limping along. And it just got worse and worse and worse until his leg stopped cramping and he ran and then cramped a little bit more and he finished the race. Right? But it shows you that he has this point of pride, dignity, all like motivation, all this stuff that is really important and just a really good business reminder. Just a reminder in everyone's life that you need to have that point of pride that no matter how, like, no matter how hard things get, you keep praying or you keep. You never walk, you never get reduced. It's. The suffering is optional quote. You keep doing your same things because you know it's going to get better. Because it is a running event after all. It's not a walking of it. You. You don't get reduced to the floor after you get punched in the face, right? You have that backup plan. You. You know what's going to happen next. You know, the A to B move, right? It's just a really good reminder. The next thing that he. He kind of ends with, or he says on page 53 is, I might be reduced to crawling, but I was going to make it to the finish line on my own steam. He was so determined that even if he was reduced to walking or even crawling, he would still make it, because that's how determined he was. And I just love what he was saying where it's like, I'm going to keep improving, but even if it means that I have to crawl, I have to walk, you know, I will make it to the finish line. I do not care. I will make it to the finish line. I just think it's a. It's a beautiful way to end this episode, a beautiful way to end part one of this book series. And I think it's just a great reminder. I might be reduced to crawling, but I was going to make it to the finish line on my own steam. Just remember that as you go into your day, whatever day this is what. Whenever you're listening to this, go into that day with a full head of steam and just go after it. You got this right. You might be reduced to walking, you might re. You might be reduced to even crawling, but just fighting back and keep doing what you're doing is one of the biggest things you can do to really improve your life. And I. I think. Just remember that. I'm excited for part two. I'm on page 70. That was page 53 of notes, so a lot more coming your way. Really good book so far and really best book I've ever read on Running. Only book I've ever read on Running. There is an update on the Banana book. I'm gonna try to make some podcast episodes for that. Probably intersperse it between this book and the other books. I'll definitely be interspersing it. So thank you for listening to this podcast episode. Really glad that I'm reading this book. Can't wait to finish it and I'll talk to you guys again soon.