Motivation

   This past week Renee & I were lucky enough to be invited to a motivational talk put on by our friend Tom.  As I mentioned earlier in the blog, Renee & I became really close friends with Tom and Lyn while on vacation and try to meet up every few weeks for dinner to catch up on things.  This past week, Tom invited us up to a talk that he was hosting for his financial clients.  He had a friend of his, Dave McGillivray, all lined up to do the talk.
    For those of you who aren't familiar who Dave McGillivray is (god knows I was before I met Tom & Lyn), he is actually the race director for the Boston Marathon.  He grew up locally in Medford, and as I found out during his motivational talk he has completed some extraordinary athletic feats in his life.  His talk basically started out about how he was always limited in his early years by his short stature.  He was picked last for sports and at times didn't make the team.  He went on to say how this served as motivation when he found his true calling in running.  From his teenage years on, he was big into running and attempted to run his first marathon at age 17 with minimal preparation.  Unfortunately, he didn't finish but learned a lesson from that failure when his grandfather told him that you don't get something for nothing, and you need to put the work in to achieve things.  Ultimately he went on to run the marathon, and has done it every year for the past 39 years.
    In addition he also talked about some of his other athletic achievements:  Countless marathons, 8 iron mans, a run from Medford, OR to Medford, MA in 80 days (he averaged 40-50 miles a day without taking a day off) and being able to run his age in miles every year on his birthday since he was 13 (yep, he is now 56 and just ran 56 miles this past August).  By all measures, he is a super athlete ... even a freak of nature.  Being a physician, it amazes me that anyone can run the amount he described without injury but he seems to have done it.
    In the end, his talk had some key points that didn't revolve around any of his athletic accomplishments.  In fact, he didn't seem to think much of any of them although to me they appeared to be superhuman.  While he made tons of great points, the ones that I took away from the talk were these:
1 - You don't get something for nothing.   If you want something, you have to put the time / training in to get it as its not going to be handed to you.
2 - One of the best quotes I have heard in a while, "The people who say 'it can't be done', shouldn't get in the way of the people who are doing it'".  I don't know why but that quote really seemed to mean a lot to me.  I think deep down, I can relate to this quote because for the longest time I was one of those people that believed running a marathon was impossible.  Now, I am actively training to do it and have come farther already than I had ever expected.  I remember when I ran my first 10k about 5 years ago.  When I crossed the finish line in Holyoke, I can remember thinking to myself that I was so exhausted that I would never be able to run more than this distance.  Now, 6 miles is just a maintenance run for me.  I guess this quote helps me remember how far I have come, and that the goal is achievable.
3- Use the abilities to help others.  One of the most impressive parts of Dave's talk was that he didn't do these superhuman athletic feats for fame or glory, but rather to raise money for charities.  It really helps ground us and helps us remember that there are people much less fortunate than we are.
    Overall, I thought the talk was fantastic an really help sharpen my focus.  I appreciate the invite and was extremely happy to spend time with Tom, Lyn and family.