I picked up running again last year. I finished a few races and reached some personal goals, but along the way I developed a mindset that the first 3 miles are never easy unless you are doing 10. No matter how much I was training or running, I always found that the first three miles were the toughest. The start, the middle and the end all took the right mindset and motivation, but if I was running ten miles, the first three seemed a lot easier. The first few miles seem like a small obstacle when they are only a warm-up to a larger and greater challenge.
I share this with friends I run with from time to time and it spins around and around in my head when I run occasionally. It has lead me to think how the “First Three” mentality applies in other ways:
- If you set your personal goals at three, the challenge to get there seems far greater than setting them at ten.
- If you are a business owner, getting your business through the first three is never easy, but if your goal is ten or twenty you will set a path and plan to achieve and exceed well beyond three even if you fall short of the ten.
Getting through the first three doesn’t seem as hard or as difficult a goal when your expectations and plans are set to achieve far beyond. Setting goals and meeting them are never easy, but when you set a higher goal and then you battle each day to get closer and closer, take a moment to stop and look back…that first three is in the books. Now it’s on to the next three.
