Drive!

I was reading Sports Illustrated this weekend. I read about Lance Armstrong. I read about training regimens of the NFL’s best players. I read about a bunch of hotshot up and coming lady golfers. I read about Ed Viesturs, one of the few guys in the world to have climbed all 14 of the world’s peaks above 8,000 ft without oxygen. Wow, these are all extraordinary people!

Then I got to thinking about what really separates them from me. What is it that separates anyone who excels in their field from me? The answer I came up with is drive. They are all driven. I know people like this. They are the ones who train for marathons. Who always know everything in depth about their subjects. They are always at work getting more done than me or at the library studying harder than I am. They are always fully prepared. They can juggle lots of things while being great at all of them.

So great! What is drive and where can I get it? Well, I think a lot of it is determination and discipline, with a little obsession thrown in. I have determination, but I tend to the lazy side. I generally don’t have the discipline to study all night, or rise at 5 am and run for a few hours before work. I’d like to do those things and I try to but I’m good at finding excuses. People who are driven say things like “There is no excuse not to….” They can’t rest unless they have done all they need to be the best. I want to be that guy.

So I’m thinking that I can maybe train myself into getting drive. I need to do this if I’m going to compete with the elite of the world some day, in whatever field I decide to get into when I grow up. They say that 20 days is what it takes to form a habit. I’m going to try for 20 days to get up and go running. I’m going to try for 20 days to make optimistic lists and plans and force myself to follow through. I think this is a good little exercise. One item on my list is to update the Blog three times a week. You can follow this action from home faithful readers.