The Wall

Yesterday after we ran our mile, we just sat on the grass and I had a talk with the group.

I talked about how most high level athletes, it doesn't matter for what sport, but high level athletes in general have all learned how to push past there own comfort zone. It is not easy, but that's also why they are in the top small percentage in their sport. You hear athletes talk about when they were athletes and that they played through injury. These tales are probably not just stories, but the truth, as many athletes could see some injuries as just part of the process, and they try to push through it. I mentioned also that that is why doctors step in now, and sometimes have to tell them to sit as they are injured.

I talked about one of my favorite movies when it comes to delivering a sports related message. Run, Fat Boy, Run. It is a romantic comedy at its core, but it has one part of the movie that delivers a funny scene, but when analyzed was a good message. It was the concept of "The Wall." This is when the body begins to tell you that you can't quite do anymore. He is running a marathon, and due some circumstances he is quite beat up at this time. The movie then puts an actual brick wall in the street, and you see the character go up to the wall, and contemplate just stopping at the wall. He decides that the wall is in his head and he continues to run the marathon, and the wall on the street disappears.

I talked about the message that most people don't realize what they are able to accomplish, and that they only are able to find out, if you are willing to push beyond "The Wall," or the Comfort Zone as I have referred to before. On the back of TNT Handbooks, Phil Black put it as, the "Extra" in extraordinary, as you must do extraordinary effort to have extraordinary results.

This ties right in to the Challenge the Impossible Theme. One does not know what is possible without trying. It is hard to realize that failing with trying is better than never trying at all. I have read many articles saying that this is what has made the rest of the world catch the US, as we have created a society where results are all that matter and that failure is a result, and a result that you should never have, but in reality failure is a step towards the result, and a success without failures along the way are simply success in the mindset that mediocrity is ok.

Practice pushing past your wall, as it is a mental wall. I find out what it feels like to reach that finish line despite what the result may end up being.