Hello everyone! Thanks for joining me. I hope you’re all having a fabulous day. I’m currently training to run two marathons, so I’ve been thinking a lot about business analogies that involve running. Today we’re going to discuss some I’ve come up with. For this specific post, we’re going to concentrate on analogies regarding the preparation to run a marathon rather than the marathon itself. There are so many similarities between business and running, so I’m going to look at eight of those connections. Here goes!
1) Plan – To run 26.2 miles, there has to be a strategy in place to get there. For business we need a plan as well, so make sure you know how you’re going to accomplish your goals.
2) Obstacles – There are always obstacles that will interfere with our plans. The weather is an example. It’s difficult to run when it’s over 100 degrees or lightning starts up. In business, we face obstacles in the form of external forces like the economy, but we have to work around them.
3) Injury – This relates somewhat to my previous point. Personal injury can throw things off track when you’re training for a marathon. I think the analogy here is when a team member is sick. If you lose a team member, even temporarily, it really impacts your original plans and what it will take to reach your goals.
4) Adjust – This ties into number three in terms of how we handle injuries and setbacks. Sometimes we need to adjust our plans. If we get injured, maybe we need to shorten our mileage or modify our activities. In business, losing a team member may mean that someone else has to work harder, or we move dates forward.
5) Long days – When training to run a marathon, some days involve running particularly long distances. You’ll have a weekly training session where you’re running twelve to twenty miles. In business, there will sometimes be long days where you just have to suck it up and push through.
6) Accountability – Training for a marathon requires personal and external accountability. To that end, it’s great to run with a group or team to help increase the likelihood of following through. The same sort of support is necessary in business.
7) Rest – This is probably one of the most difficult things to think about both in running and in business. It’s hard to know when to grind versus when to rest. When you’re training for a marathon, rest days are super important because your body regenerates more during rest than it does during training. Without rest, you can work yourself to a point where it’s actually counterproductive. It’s just as important to figure out when to rest in business, although having clarity on that can be very challenging.
8) Have fun – Not every aspect of training or running a business is fun. In both cases there are some difficult days. But when something stops being fun for a long period of time, it’s a sign that we need to adjust the plan. We need to figure out how to make things more enjoyable. It may take some pain to get to the fun, but with running you need times where you need to run for fun without tracking yourself or your mileage. The same goes for business. If we can’t remember the last time we enjoyed ourselves in business, we need to make some changes.
So there you have it. I encourage you to put these eight things into practice and make it a better than amazing day!
