Relentless Forward Progress

I have competed in two 70.3 Ironman triathlon races. Each of these took more than 6 hours for me to complete. If they were easy, they wouldn't be fun. Some of the key mentalities to keep is a lot of optimism and perseverance. I remember in my first race, about 2.5 hours in seeing a spectator with a sign that read "Relentless Forward Progress". This relates a lot to every day life, as well as the working life. There are a lot of people who have a hard time going to work in the morning because they hate it, or are tired of it. This is why I try to never look back at my bad days, and only reflect on my positive opportunities, and always learn something from every situation.

There have been a lot of long days at work. These are inevitable for anyone over the age of 15, where you actually stop working when you get home. These days can be difficult to make it through and stressful on everyone involved, but they are always worth it. Little do we know there is always a prize at the end of a long day, it all just depends on how you interpret it. Optimism is important in every day life, and like Simon Sinek posted, the right perception is what creates optimism. This allows us to continue to improve our mood as we watch our hard work pay off.

In order to adopt this mentality you also have to account for the small wins. Sure I didn't finish in the top ten of the race, or even in the top thousand, but I finished. A small win could be anything from making your bed in the morning to cleaning paper work off your desk. There is a short video about small wins that sparked interest in the scientific community that was recognized while Nobel Prize winners were working on their DNA model. They discovered that completing parts of their project were almost as rewarding as completing the entire thing. So remember, never stop progressing, and always stay optimistic.