Half Marathon #28: The Resilience Question

Yesterday, I produced a clip from my podcast featuring Suzanne Heywood. She talked about one trait every entrepreneur and executive needs to stay focused:

Resilience.

But here’s the real question—how do you build resilience?

Her answer was simple: Step out of your comfort zone. Do the hard thing. Go the extra mile.

Why It Matters

Resilience isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it atrophies when you get too comfortable. It sharpens when you actively push yourself.

Ways to Build Resilience

🔹 Run a marathon. Training takes months, and it’s brutally hard. Every long run tests your will. The minute you lace up for a 30K, you know—it’s going to hurt.

Today was one of those days. Doubt crept in before I even started. Am I really ready for 30K? Why not stop at 10? Maybe another day.

That’s the voice of resistance.

The trick? Recognize it. Accept it. Ignore it. And then, keep moving forward.

But if running isn’t your thing, here are other ways to sharpen resilience:

🔹 Have lunch with someone you dislike. Practice managing emotions. Stay kind. Stay in control.
🔹 Take on a work project you hate. Push through resistance. Execute anyway.
🔹 Join the military. Try special forces training. The ultimate resilience test.

Resilience Grows in Discomfort

It doesn’t grow on the couch. It doesn’t grow when you take the easy path.

It grows when you push into discomfort, again and again.

And the reward? Hard things stay hard—but you get stronger. You learn to manage yourself, separate noise from signal, and push toward your goal with a steady, positive mindset.

That’s resilience. That’s what keeps you moving forward.

 

You Want the Results? Then You Need the Lifestyle.

Yesterday's run was brutal. The final kilometers drained every ounce of energy. For the first time in this training cycle, I felt like I had hit my limit.

But here’s the thing—I’ve completed 17 marathons and hit this wall before. I know how this works. The pain doesn’t go away. The practice doesn’t get easier. The suffering just gets delayed.

Right now, I feel it at 28K. Soon, it’ll be 42K. Later, it might be 50K. The challenge remains. The threshold just moves.

Do You Want to Be Like Your Idols? Then Live Like Them.

People say they want to be as rich as Elon Musk or as fit as Dean Karnazes—until they realize what that actually means.

I remember discovering Karnazes’ books years ago. His story mesmerized me. Running 100 miles through the mountains every single day for the rest of my life? Sounded incredible. The endurance, the adventure, the books, the inspiration—it all painted a beautiful picture.

But there was one problem.

To be where he was meant doing what he did—
Every. Single. Day.
For decades.

The Michael Phelps Formula

The same lesson applies in every field. I once came across Michael Phelps’ training schedule:

🏊‍♂️ 7 hours per day
🏊‍♂️ 6 days per week
🏊‍♂️ Over a decade
🏊‍♂️ 80K meters per week—that’s 520 laps of an Olympic pool every day

And the result? 5 Olympic Games. 28 medals. 23 gold.

You want Olympic gold? Then that’s your life for the next 20 years.

You want Elon Musk’s success? Then be ready for his schedule, his risks, his sacrifices—every day, for decades.

The Reality Check

Musk once said, “People want to be me—until they understand what that means.”

Success isn’t magic. It’s brutal repetition. And those at the top? They’ve trained like Olympic athletes—just in entrepreneurship, investing, and innovation.

The Lesson

📌 If you want the results, you must embrace the lifestyle—100%.
📌 Find someone who has already done it. Model their life. Follow their routine.
📌 Do the work. Every single day. For as long as it takes.

🚀 What’s your goal? Who are you modeling? Let’s discuss in the comments.