I recently reconnected with an old college teammate to recall a running route which punished us each Sunday morning during cross-country season. I ran throughout college as a distance runner in an intensive program in upstate New York. I can remember running over 45 miles in three days and wondering if I was going to simply break like a toothpick. On Sunday mornings after grueling races the day before, we would faithfully head out at 7 AM on our 17 mile Ellison Park runs. We sounded like a graceful stampede in rhythm running along waterways and into small towns. Some mornings, I relied heavily on my teammates just to pull me through the workouts. Showers and brunch at 9:30 AM started our days. The majority of the campus was still in bed. We were just trying to recover enough to do our 4:40 mile repeats the next day.

I could not have performed at such a high level without my teammates, and for that I am grateful. They helped make me who I am today. I can see in hindsight that those days were teaching me much more about how to win at life than just running races. I used to ask myself if it was worth it. I always suspected that there would be payoff in many unseen ways. Not only did I get faster, stronger and mentally tough at racing, but it did much more for me. I learned about paying a price and having endurance in the race of life. As we are all racing towards our common destination – our mortality – a focus on staying in the race and pushing towards our best becomes harder as we go along. The distractions, hardship and choice of an easier life are always there to tempt us to stop pushing or seeking to win.

I miss those days of pushing my body and mind to the limits. However, these are the lessons I apply every day in business and life which were working in me. I see these continually play out in people of passionate pursuits: