Endurance Training

How much pain are you willing to endure in order to go for glory?

If you know what’s coming, if you know what you are striving toward, aren’t you a little bit more focused and more capable of enduring what you are currently going through?

Take for example your workouts. How many of our workouts just absolutely suck? Our lungs burn, our arms hurt, and our legs are on fire. Yet we know there is an end in sight, so we continue pushing toward either that final rep or until that clock sounds because we know we are gaining strength from it. We understand the benefits of our workout.

How about a mother who carries a child in her womb for 9 months and then gives birth? Labor is not a comfortable process and it cannot be fun. But at the end of it you have this new creation, a new child and piece of your family. Then how many mothers are willing to go through all of that pain, all of that suffering, all over again for a second, third or fourth child? Plenty.

This is endurance training at it’s finest. Endurance training is about pushing yourself through that temporary pain, through the hurt because you see what’s ahead and that final point that you are striving toward.

Another example is the Summer Olympics that just finished. I love watching track and field, especially seeing the sprinters fly around the track. Usain Bolt makes it look so easy. But the other sprinters, they look like they are in pain. They look like their legs are on fire and their lungs are burning – yet they don’t care. They keep pushing forward. Pushing for that finish line and a shot at the medal.

More importantly, they are doing it for a shot at history. When you medal, you are remembered forever in the history of the Olympics. So that’s what they were going for. Legacy. They are willing to endure pain for a shot at glory.

And the same applies to your journey & the obstacles you’re currently facing.

What giants are you facing right now? Are you looking ahead? Are you looking at what awaits once you get through it? Or are you so focused on the turmoil and pain of what you are going through that you’ve lost sight of what’s ahead? I want to encourage you today with three ways that you can improve your endurance training for life:

1. Focus on your future and not your feet. When we look down, we only focus on what’s right here in front of us and what we are currently going through and what we are currently struggling with. But when we move our eyes from the ground in front of us to the road ahead, we focus on what’s more important. We focus on that finish line and the glory that awaits us. And if we keep competing, we will be able to get out of this current mess and closer to that finish line.

2. Temporary pain is worth a lifetime of glory. The Olympics I just mentioned are the absolute best example of that. These athletes work for years, day after day after day, just for one shot at gold, a silver, or even a bronze medal – a legacy beyond their lifetime. It is all about that one shot for them. So for them, the pain of training is worth that one shot at history. Whatever you are facing in your life, whatever struggles have come between you and your goal, your goal is worth more than that temporary pain. So understand that that pain will one day end and your goal will still be there. You can keep going if you know it is not going to last forever.

3. Know this above all else. Your goals and your life are always more important than that obstacle before you. The pain in your lungs pales in comparison to the fire in your heart. Whatever hurt and heartache you are dealing with, understand your purpose and the things you are competing every day for are far more important than a temporary setback and a temporary pain.

The pain of your current trials cannot stand next to the power of your purpose.

I believe in you. I encourage you this week to work on your endurance training. Remember, the pain is temporary when you see the glory that waits ahead.

You can get through anything, just compete every day for it.

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