Sprinter vs Marathon Mindset
How seeing the finish line makes all the difference to be there at the end
In case you have forgotten what day it is, it’s Thursday, January 21st, 2020. I share the date with you because I want to talk to you about the difference between marathoning and sprinting. Right now, the days and weeks might feel like you are in a never ending marathon where you cannot see the finish line. Even if the end of the marathon is just around the corner, if you can’t see the finish line, you may not know when it’s coming.
This can be gruelling. Even if we know that all things end, I think there is something psychological that happens to us when we can’t see the end of something.
Right now, during COVID and lockdowns, one of the reasons it may feel so daunting is because so many of us may have a general malaise, a kind of COVID drag because we can’t see the finish line. Yet.
A series of sprints
Instead of seeing these days as a long and gruelling marathon, allow me to encourage you to look at this time we are in right now as a series of sprints.
Here’s the thing: In a sprint, you can see the finish line.
Usually, you know where the end of a sprint is and you can use that finish line as something to look forward to, as a sort of hope to hold in your mind.
The majority of us are not built to marathon. Most of us are sprinters—we can handle short spurts of challenges. Over the last almost year you may not have felt like you are going very fast. You may not think of yourself as as sprinter. (You may think of yourself as more of a couch potato.) If you approach your days like little sprints, that may help get you through to end, to the finish line. Perhaps look at the days as small projects and tasks, where you can see the end result, where you can see the reward, where you can see the finish line.
As we move forward in the middle of the belly of winter, consider these days as little sprints with little finish lines. Use little check marks, little successes throughout your day to break up these sometimes marathon-like days, weeks and months. Short, sweet, sprints where you can see the finish line and feel as if you are making progress.
You are moving forward; you are still in the game. You are making progress. Just be there at the end. That’s the goal…Be there at the end.
