Melanie Hicks Forbes Councils Member Forbes Business Development Council
Melanie Hicks, PhD is Founder/CEO of InPursuit Research, an education, nonprofit and small business consulting firm.
A few weeks ago, I ran a 50k. Despite its lofty 30.069-mile length, this distance is, in truth, the infant of the ultra-marathon universe. However, for this novice, it was 18 miles longer than any distance I had ever run previously.
While I embarked on this for reasons mostly around challenge and health, the months of training and the race itself led to three unexpected and lasting lessons for my business.
Lesson One: Have A Plan But Embrace Flexibility
Training for an ultra is, to my great surprise, far more challenging than the actual race. The mental fortitude to give increasingly long periods of time to increasingly longer distances week in and week out is taxing both mentally and physically.
As a type A planner, I had mapped out a day-by-day schedule that perfectly balanced my running, personal and work life. And then quickly, threw it out. I developed plantar fasciitis within the first month of training, requiring an alteration in how I trained. My business blossomed, requiring an alteration in the timing of my runs and the impact they had on my personal life.
There is perhaps no time in history where we, as business owners, share such a collective understanding of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity (VUCA). The pandemic taught us many things, none more impactful than how fragile the future can be at any given moment. And yet, it is human nature to wind our lives, business or otherwise, around plans and the false sense of control they provide.
This experience reinforced my own personal illustration of just how critical flexibility is to success. Had I been overly rigid in the pursuit of this goal, my only option would have been to give up completely.
Lesson Two: Set Uncomfortable Goals And Buckle In For The Ride
Set realistic goals, set lofty goals, set SMART goals, set mini-goals; the noise around the word goal is loud and chaotic. And our relationship to goal setting is deeply rooted in our level of comfort with failure.
Perfectly articulated in her book Called Out: Why I Traded Two Dream Jobs for a Life of True Calling, Paula Faris discusses the idea of achievement addition. The idea is that for some of us, from a very young age, achievement becomes our drug of choice. It seems like a positive trait for smart ambitious kids. However, the ramifications of this behavior later in life often means you can self-limit what you choose to do to only things you can excel at.
For me, this need to be fail-proof kept me on only safe paths for years. My journey to becoming an entrepreneur was years in the making and filled with “one step forward, two steps back” moments. However, a few years ago I made a pact with myself to embrace the things that scare me. To set goals so audacious that my inclination was to run the other direction. To rehab from the addiction of achievement and embrace the learning that can only come from failure.
And then a funny thing happened, I didn’t fail nearly as much as feared I would. In fact, when I gave up trying to be perfect, I actually won more than I lost and began to love the experience either way.
This ultra was a definite goal of discomfort. I challenged my body and my mind to go to a place I would have otherwise said was impossible. And in the process, I proved to myself that nothing was really impossible, in life or business. Any challenge that arises in my business can be overcome with patience, industriousness and grit.
Lesson Three: Some Things Are Just For You
It might surprise you to know that on the culmination day of this great journey, I stood all alone reveling in my accomplishment. There were no cheering crowds giving out water and bananas, no DJs blasting hype music, no metals or awards. Not even my husband was available to high five at the finish.
The reason? Despite signing up for an official race, something in my gut compelled me to opt for the virtual race instead. Then spontaneously, a week before my virtual race was set to take place, I turned a 28-mile training run to the full and final race. I was fully aware this would leave me in solitude at the conclusion. And yet, that suited me fine. I was ready and simply didn’t want to wait unnecessarily.
Being an entrepreneur does not mean you always have to go alone. In fact, the addition of my business partner has been one of the greatest amplifiers in my business thus far. Some victories are meant to be yours and yours alone, and you should embrace and relish in those. Allow those victories to keep you elevated when the day-to-day work attempts to pull you down. Allow those victories to be messages of positivity to replace the negativity of doubt.
As I rounded the last corner of the trail, with the end in sight, I felt every sensation possible: from pride and joy to relief and pain. And while I felt every ache in my body, a smile soon became involuntary laughter. I ran for the challenge. I ran for the health benefits. I ran to prove I could. I ran to overcome impossible. I ran for me. I ran to become a better entrepreneur.