It's not about being fast. There was an idea. "The better you" was just a few steps ahead. You ran until the idea got tired. You passed it. Then you look up. There it is again, wearing down. Pass it again. Again. Again. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. It's about endurance.

Life boils down to three questions: 1. Did I try my best? 2. Did I make wise decisions? 3. Did I treat others with kindness? If you can answers those with satisfaction, then your life is a success.

Degree of significance different factors have on improving running: Low - weather, elevation, watch, shoes, shades, gear in general, fasting, music, time of day, seasonality Medium: Sleep, nutrition, intensity, weight training High: "Did you run today?" = Yes

Running well when you feel good is great. But everyone does great training when they're a 9 out of 10. The key to gratitude, confidence and self-mastery is becoming a person who runs well when you feel like crap. 4 out of 10? That's more than enough.

The last six miles of a hard-run marathon are the meaningful miles. These miles reduce you to only two desires: 1) Give up (slower) 2) Keep going Your choice in the binary existence of those six miles will justify or invalidate all the training that came before.

Consistency > Intensity A mediocre plan executed every day for a year will yield exponentially better results than a great plan that sputters out after a few months. Be Stronger. Be Smarter. Be Kinder....One day at a time. Be the tortoise.

Forgiveness means “to give before anything is owed.” Run to exhaustion. Lift to failure. Learn to frustration. Parent to annoyance. Love to heartbreak. Trying your best requires failure. Give yourself grace, even if you don't deserve it yet.

Most efforts provide a reward in alignment with your ability. Not running. This is what makes running special in the world of self-improvement. You don’t have to learn anything or get better. Just keep showing up. In running, the effort IS the reward.

Running the furthest you’ve ever run will teach you that your body is not some precious, fragile thing. It will teach you that satisfaction feels like exhaustion, and that love is not a soft and placid behavior. These are not minor lessons.

The average American spends $92/month on coffee. The average runner spends $83/month on running. So, A) Running really is an affordable form of fitness. 😃 But also, B) I spend $175/month just to get my day started. 😑

We are designed for second chances. The worst things that have happened to me are often directly responsible for the best things I have now.

1/3) There is no more important decision in life than your choice of partner. A good partner makes the hard days easier and the good days better.

2/3) As time passes and all your experiences coalesce into a pool of feelings that was your life, it is a significant comfort to know that someone else was there, feeling you what you felt, and that it meant as much to them as it did to you.

3/3) If satisfaction is measured on a balance of peace and regret, it is hard to overestimate the value of someone who knows everything about you saying, “I love you, and I’m proud of you."

1/3) An open mind is a beautiful mind. Being strong enough to live in the discomfort of doubt is more beneficial than relaxing in the comfort of conviction.

2/3) An open mind will encourage you to take risks, to let people in, to explore. You will be less cynical, because some belief is a prerequisite to take on new experiences. And yes, you will be challenged by these experiences, and challenge guarantees failure.

3/3) But when you inevitably fail, be open to that experience too. Embrace the failure like a friend, because it is your friend. Like little toddlers falling over, it is the process of repeated failure that makes us strong enough to walk on our own two feet.

A pebble of intelligence and a mountain of effort. That's what running your best requires. Running on those bedrocks will build a powerful piece of experience: You are already smart enough to build ANYTHING that matters to you. Will you sustain the effort?

3 Types of Motivation Common Motivation "I have so much energy and enthusiasm for this, so I will do it." Deep Motivation "I have no energy or enthusiasm for this, but I will still do it." Anti-Motivation "I am damaging myself for this, and I won't stop doing it."

It’s been a totally surreal 7 year run. 5 Super Bowl trips, 3 Rings, played in the Conference Championship game every single year. Everything caught up with them this year & they just didn’t have it. No shame in that, just is what it is. Now we just pray Patrick is OK.