A marathon is 26.2 miles. Would you turn up at the start line without doing a single training run?
And if you did, would you honestly expect to finish? Be realistic.
Nobody sensible tries to run 26.2 miles on hope. Yet plenty of us do exactly that in other parts of life, with the pitch we wing or the big conversation we walk into cold. Sun Tzu wrote about this around two and a half thousand years ago:
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter IV, translated by Lionel Giles (1910)
I’m not a fan of war, oddly enough. But his principles make sense for so many other things. The winner does the work first, so by the time the day comes the result is already likely. The loser rushes in and hopes it works out.
What’s your marathon?
What’s the equivalent of a marathon for you right now? It might be a pitch, a new hire or a hard conversation with your team. It might be nothing to do with work at all.
Whatever it is, the question is the same. What preparation does it need, and how are you going to get yourself ready for it?
I said on my podcast, Your Best Year Starts Here, that if I’ve got to cut down a tree and I’ve got ten hours, I’ll spend nine of them sharpening the axe.
Stay ready
I remember hearing Will Smith talk about this. Rather than rushing to get in shape when a role came up, he kept himself in shape all the time. In his words, if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.
I love that. Staying ready is preparation that’s already done before you know you need it. What’s likely to come up for you over the next few months, and what could you already have in place for it?
Decide it’s done before you start
When I ran my first ultra marathon, running 100 miles, I’d decided I’d finished before I started. All that was left was putting one foot in front of the other until I got to the end. (I told the full story in Start Before You Feel Ready.)
The commitment was there. The decision was there. I’ve seen the same thing play out more times than I can count since, at work and at home. Make the decision and do the preparation, and the day itself becomes the part where you go and collect.
So what preparation could you do today that you’ll thank yourself for? Not just tomorrow, but a year from now. Maybe even ten years from now.
