For the past three weeks I've a meeting with my mentee at 5 a.m. in the morning. He had indicated he wanted to get up in the morning and run with me so that we can continue building and bonding in our relationship together. So for the past three weeks he would get up and I would meet them 5 a.m. in the morning. And for the past three weeks I’d just meet him in the morning say “Hello” and “Have a great day!” And send him home. We wouldn’t go for a run or even talk. Nothing, just meet and “Have a great day.” This went on for three weeks. Every morning he would still come and show up, day after day for the three weeks no running, just getting up meeting in the morning saying “Hello” and “Have a great day!”

However, just the other day as we did the same routine, he said to me, “I don't understand what's really happening here but I know that there's something in it for me. So I'm going to keep showing up.” And BOOM that was the moment. That's the moment that what I was exactly trying to teach. That is when I knew he got the lesson of a long distance runner and for life. That is when I spoke to him and shared with him that “Commitment isn't for the convenient.”

For three weeks he had been getting up at 5 a.m. every morning wondering if things will turn out as he want them to. Getting up at 5am is not comfortable and things not going as you plan is even more uncomfortable. But that’s how life can be sometimes. We may not see it at the moment and it may not come when we want it but just keep showing up. Showing up believing that there's something in it for you.

There was a reason for me getting him up early in the morning at 5am and not going for a run, he knew there had to be a reason. So whatever your 5am moment is that you’re showing up for, know that there’s a reason for it and there's something in it for you.

There’s something that you need to learn and benefit from. Because again commitment isn't for the convenient. Getting up at 5 a.m. and not going for a run day after day after day. That's inconvenient. But the commitment to understand that there is something in it for you keeps you showing up. And you can't give up until you get it. When my mentee said that he knew it was something in it for him, that is when I realized I knew he had it. He had the understanding of how to be dedicated and really make it through the long run. By showing up every morning at 5 a.m. and not going for run lets me know that no matter how far we would have ran he would have made it because he showed the commitment prior to the run. And that’s important thing for a long distance runner. To show the commitment prior to the run lets you know how far you’ll actually run. All the work you do before the work that makes the work easy.

We have to realize that showing up like that requires a special effort. It requires us to show up believing that there’s something in it for us, mixed with the understanding of knowing that this type of commitment isn’t for the convenient.

"Stay Excited!"™

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