You don’t jump out of bed one day and run 26.2 miles

I can’t say that it’s never been done.  In fact, I am sure that someone out there has done even better than that, but it’s definitely not the typical way of going about it.  I spent roughly 20 years thinking that I should run a marathon, but it was not until I made up my mind that I was doing it, signed up for the race, and adhered to a training program that it actually happened.  I signed up for Grandma’s Marathon five months before race day.  In the days that followed, I trained nearly everyday.  I followed a program, and even when the weather was bad, or I was tired, or I had partied too hard the night before, I ran.  I knew that if I didn’t follow my program, I would face disaster on race day.  I would show up unprepared.

You don’t jump out of bed one day and write a masterpiece

I can’t say that it’s never been done.  In fact, I am sure that someone out there has done even better than that, but it’s definitely not the typical way of going about it.  (Are you beginning to see a trend here?)  I spent more than 20 years thinking that I wanted to be a writer.  In fact, I have known on some level that I wanted to write since I first entered school.  Just as I did with the marathon, I spent many years thinking about it.  When I was thinking about the marathon all those years, all I was doing was thinking.  I was not doing what now seems totally obvious – running.  When I was thinking about writing all those years, all I was doing was thinking.  I was not doing what now seems totally obvious – writing.

Sure there was dabbling along the way…

I worked out here and there logging the occasional mile or two, and I did some writing here or there.  I even spent a couple of years writing for my hometown newspaper – a gig I loved even if I wasn’t demonstrating the attributes of the employee of the month – ever.

Here is the thing though, to get really good at anything in life you have to be all in.  Michael Phelps doesn’t swim a lap or two every other Tuesday.  To become the most decorated Olympian of all time, he swam.  Everyday.  Stephen King’s books take up several shelves at my local Barnes and Noble.  He writes.  Everyday.  The people who succeed in their careers show up and go above and beyond.  Everyday.

Almost anyone can relate to this.  You decide you’re going to lose a “few” pounds, so you make the decision that you are going to diet and exercise.  You don’t make a plan of what you are going to eat everyday, you just try to eat “better.”  You don’t make a plan of what your exercise routine is going to look like, you are just going to “try to get to the gym.”  At the outset, you might lose a pound or two, because you skipped dessert or something, but in no time you have fallen back into your old routines and forgotten all about why you cared about those few pounds anyway.