Daily lives are often about “the grind”—work, kids, chores, obligations, repeat. Focusing on training for this marathon, and thinking about how incredibly long it is, is about freeing your mind and letting your body follow. It’s about pushing through the hill, and the next hill. And it’s about going out on a run while fighting 30-mph winds. It’s about looking outside, knowing the temps are in the 20s, and still lacing up the shoes. It’s setting aside “me” time to get my training in so that I can accomplish my goals for this race.

Dream big, but allow yourself the opportunity to start small, and have your share of struggles in the beginning. The world’s great composers weren’t writing symphonies the day they first sat at a piano.

Kevin O’Rourke, Marathoner

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”