Diego and I was running this race as part of a six person relay team with friends and
he was running the entire race by himself. And the run was unsupported so you have to
bring your own supplies. So we had, you know, we overdid it a little bit. We had a tent
and we had masseuses and food.
I mean we were ready for like in case we had to stay there
a week. And he had a folding chair, a bottle of water and a bag of crackers. And I just
thought to myself like who is this guy. Ive never seen anything like it.
And during the
race I kept an eye on him and around mile 70 he weighed probably 260 pounds which is
quite large for an ultra runner. He had broken all the small bones in both of his feet and
had kidney damage and he finished the race. So when it was done I Googled him. He had
a fascinating life story and I decided literally to cold call him.
And I flew out and met with
him and after sitting with him for a couple of minutes I realized that I could learn so
much from a guy like this that what makes him tick and various buckets in my life would
be so much better if a little bit of what he had rubbed off on me. I asked him to come
live with my family and I for a month. So at the time that I invited SEAL to come live
with us I had an 18-month-old son. I was married, still am.
Two more kids since. And I had sold
a couple of businesses. I was in a great place professionally in my life but I was also in
a routine. And routines are great but they can also be a rut.
And I found that I just
wasnt getting better. I was doing the same thing every day like so many of us. Wake up,
go to work, come home, you know, have dinner, repeat. And I just wanted to get off autopilot.
And I thought that he would be a great way to get in good shape but also to just mix
up my routine and get better.
The first day that SEAL came to live with
me he asked me to do he said how many pullups can you do? And Im not great at
pullups. I did about eight. Just getting over the bar eight. And he said all right.
Take
30 seconds and do it again. So 30 seconds later I got up on the bar and I did six, struggling.
And he said all right, one more time. We waited 30 seconds and I barely got three or four
and I was done. I mean couldnt move my arms done.
And he said all right. Were
not leaving here until you do 100 more. And I thought theres no well were going
to be here for quite a long time because theres no way that I could do 100. But I ended up
doing it one at a time and he showed me, proved to me right there that there was so much more,
were all capable of so much more than we think we are.
And it was just a great lesson.
It was actually the first thing that we did. It was just a great lesson that we have so
much more in our reserve tank than we think we do. One of the things that SEAL said to
me and its in the book and one thing that people have said that really resonated with
them. He would say that when your mind is telling you youre done, youre really
only 40 percent done.
And he had a motto if it doesnt suck we dont do it. And that
was his way of every day forcing us to get uncomfortable to figure out what our baseline
was and what our comfort level was and just turning it upside down. The 40 percent rule
maybe its give or take a little but look at a marathon. Most people hit the wall in
a marathon at mile anywhere from 16 t0 20.
And, you know, 99 percent of the people in
this country that run marathons finish and they all, predominantly all of them go through
this hit the wall. So where does that extra 50 or 60 percent or whatever the number is
come from? I mean its their brain saying Im done, I dont want to continue but
their will saying you know what? Let me get to the finish line. So we all have that will.
Its just a matter of how do we apply it to not just with the once a year marathon
but to our daily lives to make it apply to a variety of things..
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