Okay … humble brag. I just ran my first ½ marathon and for me it was a really big deal. For the last decade or so I haven’t been on the greatest trajectory with my health. About 3 years ago I took up running, but it was only sporadic and while it helped, I needed to make more drastic changes. So I got serious this winter and managed to drop 30 lbs and then decided to run a ½ marathon. It was a great way to give myself a goal and provide the motivation I needed. There was no one day that was particularly hard, but what was hard was staying consistent and dedicated. There were always excuses present in my mind that could have let me derail from my goal. Thankfully I had support from family members and a few good friends that kept me accountable. We all know that accomplishing hard things is rewarding, but I find it especially rewarding when you have others to share it with. Here is a pic from the finish line taken by my wife Dixie of Shanon Sims and I celebrating. Both of these people played a key role in this success.
I think about many of the great people we get to work with through Ranching for Profit and Executive Link who do hard things. Hard things like: get a handle on their business, cut a enterprise that might carry lots of emotional baggage, hold family members accountable, have a difficult conversation with their employees, change the culture in their business, get the succession planning ball rolling, or push through a difficult situation with people who they love. Some of these hard things make running a marathon seem like a cake walk.
I believe doing hard stuff is what leadership is about. In ranching we often get hard work confused with the most important work of running a business. In ranching, I think doing hard physical work is often used as a cop out for not doing the hard stuff. It’s easy to come up with another job you are needed for outside, rather than address something that may be out of your comfort zone in the office. There is always more fence to fix, equipment to repair, cattle to check. But what about your business’s economic projections? How about that quarterly strategy meeting you said you were going to have? What about sitting down with Junior to go over expectations and develop a plan for them to move into a position with more authority in the business? Doing hard work is not the same as doing hard stuff. We must realize that sometimes doing hard work is us actually avoiding tackling the hard stuff.
I just finished a great book by Scott Galloway, “Notes on Being a Man”. When he talks about working out he said, “I don’t enjoy working out. In fact it sucks. But I love how I feel after I work out!” Similar to doing hard stuff in your business. We often don’t enjoy it, in the moment, but we enjoy the results it gives us.
I want to challenge you to do something hard. What would that be for you? What’s holding you back? Is it fitness related, like it was for me, or is it something in your life or your business that you need to pull up your big boy/girl pants and address? If you really want to see that it gets done, find someone that will hold you accountable and tell them your plan. For me having accountability partners was critical. I checked in on them and they checked in on me. If I was dropping the ball on my goal they called me out. I tried to do the same for them. It likely made the difference between me accomplishing my goal or not. What are you going to do, and when are you going to do it?
Not sure where to start? Watch this video by Executive Link facilitator, Roger Ingram, about how to grow your leadership skills. It is chock-full of tips and resources for how to get to work, on the business side of ranching.
Now go do hard stuff!
Nice work Dallas! Keep going
Congratulations! I seriously doubt that this was fun. I have run and run and in my later years walked and walked. I have not enjoyed one bit of it. I have heard of “runners'” euphoria, but I am quite sure that is a figment of someone’s imagination. The only runner’s euphoria I ever experienced was to run a touchdown or make some other outstanding play in an athletic event or win first in a race–second was never good enough. The only satisfaction that ever came was, except as described, the satisfaction of knowing that I had done something that was good for me–at least I hoped it was good for me. For me, sometimes I just do things I think are important just to know that I have done them. I have loved my career in agriculture and most of the work with that has been fun. Because of that, I haven’t worked many days in my life–too much fun to call it work. There are other things I have done in life, and still do some of them, that I would call enjoyable–only a few involve physical activity. (I should have kept skiing.) Staying in good physical condition and a few other things I do in life because I feel I should are only rewarded by the felling that I “got it done.”