This weekend I ran my first ever official half marathon.

Despite having several injuries over the past 2 months, I pushed through and hit my time target.

Since this achievement I've had a lot of time to reflect.

And during this reflection, I've learned 3 key lessons from this experience...

All of which can be applied to your business.

Let's jump right in.

1. You are stronger than your mind

The 1st ten miles of the half marathon felt pretty easy.

My pace was steady and I didn't feel fatigued at all.

This all changed at mile 11.

My body started to tire.

My breathing became heavy.

My muscles started to cramp.

Pushing through I got to mile 12.

This is when things got worse.

My pace slowed as my muscles started to feel heavy.

I was pushing my body but it wasn't responding.

Then my mind started to create excuses.

It was telling me to stop. That it's okay to walk. That I've already worked hard enough.

Ignoring my mind I pushed through the pain to find a second wind.

As I passed the finish line I realised that I'm stronger than my mind.

And this mindset can be applied to your business.

Business Application:

Negative self-talk is a huge part of business.

What happens if I fail?

Is my idea good enough?

Can I really hit these targets?

But this is the thing: They're just thoughts.

You need to develop the mental strength to acknowledge them as just that.

At the end of the day you control what you do.

Learn to push through the negative thoughts by working towards your goals.

When things don't go your way see this as a challenge, not a reason to quit.

2. Focus on the small steps to achieve a larger goal

Throughout my run I was consistently focusing on the task in front of me: the next mile.

If I sat at mile 3 thinking I had 10 more to go this would have overwhelmed me.

Any pain I was feeling would create doubt in my mind.

Instead I focused on the small tasks.

1 more breath. 1 more mile. 1 more step.

This not only made the entire race seem more manageable, but at times it was fun.

And this approach can make managing your business easier.

Business Application:

Running a business is an overwhelming task.

You need to complete client work, outreach, finances, social media, and more.

If you look at everything at once you can quickly get overwhelmed.

And when you get overwhelmed, you quit.

Instead of focusing on everything break your goals down into manageable tasks.

Instead of focusing on landing 5 clients focus on sending 10 cold emails.

Instead of focusing on writing an entire sales page focus on the headline.

Instead of focusing on writing social media posts for a month focus on the first 5 posts.

All of a sudden that huge task in front of you seems more manageable.

3. You can't achieve great things alone

For many years I thought of myself as a lone wolf.

Someone who could set out and achieve everything by myself.

The reality is you need people to support you.

Whatever you achieve alone, you'll achieve 10x more with other like-minded people by your side.

During the last 200m of the race everything in my body hurt.

My hips were killing me, my left ankle felt as if it was going to pop and my shoulders felt heavy.

But with the finish line in sight I saw my girlfriend at the side cheering me on.

After seeing her the pain went away.

Despite what I had felt just seconds ago I was able to sprint to the finish line and hit my time target in the process.

This made me realise that with the right people around, you can achieve so much more.

And with the right people success in business becomes much easier.

Business Application:

In business you need to surround yourself with 3 types of people.

The first is mentors.

These are people who have achieved what you want and who can help you on your journey.

You can find mentors through books, coaching programmes and general networking.

The second is peers.

These are people on the same journey as you who can help you develop your skills.

You can find peers mentorship groups, social media and networking events.

The third is people who support you.

These people will help you no matter what.

They'll be there to celebrate when you succeed and support you when times get tough.

And trust me here, one person who supports you is truly worth more than 100 people who pretend to.

After completing the half marathon I experienced a huge sense of relief.

I'd proven that despite many setbacks I could achieve what I put my mind to.

And now it's time to set the next target...

In my experience, it's important to have goals outside of business.

They help you develop physically and mentally, and the lessons learned can be applied to everything you do.

So if you haven't already, set yourself a challenge to achieve before the end of the year.

You won't regret it.

Have a great week,

Copy "Challenge Yourself" Maverick