Three Reasons You Could Achieve So Much More (No Matter How Much You're Doing Already)

(originally published July 9, 2015. My original blog, on Wordpress, was hacked in early 2016. All of the original posts, through January 2016, have been re-posted here on Blogger.)

Running five marathons in a year has become my metaphor – my symbol of going beyond myself, beyond my perceived limitations, beyond the obstacles I had previously thought were insurmountable.

As I train for Marathon number 3 (which will likely be in Athens in November), the metaphor of the marathon is beginning to spill over to other areas of my life. (Although, to be candid, after around mile 20 of a 26.2 mile marathon, the notion of “metaphor” fades away as every muscle in your body tells you in no uncertain terms that this is not symbolic, but very real – and a little painful). When I ran Marathon number 1 in Jerusalem back in March, I wondered if I was a bit crazy to think that I could actually run not one, but five marathons – not during my lifetime, but in the course of one year.

I may be a little crazy – but not to think I could run five marathons in a year. Now that I have two under my belt, run within seven weeks of each other, the idea of running five no longer seems at all daunting. As someone who for years wouldn’t dare run more than three miles, then worked up to a 10K, then, with some trepidation, a half-marathon, and then a marathon, and finally, multiple marathons – it’s starting to hit home how many things I could likely do that I never thought possible. 

Not just running. Everything. Learning a language. Becoming financially independent. Traveling the world. Writing a few more books. Even getting up early – and even getting through that perennial pile of papers on my side of the bed/

It’s all possible.

And this, dear reader, applies to you, too. Whatever you’re doing, you’re capable of more. We all have goals that we preface with “I wish I could . . .” “I’d like to . . .” and “If only . . .” Those goals are (with few exceptions) all possible, as long as you find a way to remove the obstacles that begin with “I could never . . .” “I can’t . . .” and “It’s too hard for me to . . .” Often, the internal blocks are more formidable than the external reality.

How do I know this? As I’ve trained for these marathons, I’ve not only experienced it personally. I’ve also discovered numerous people who have achieved the seemingly impossible.

So here are three reasons – three living examples – why you can accomplish more than you think:

YOU CAN RUN AS FAR AS YOU WANT

You want to get in shape - but it seems too hard. You say you're too old for this. Or you've been sitting on the couch eating potato chips for so long that it's difficult to change now. You might think twice after watching Fauja Singh.

Fauja was born in India in 1911. A birth defect prevented him from walking until he was five. In his late 80s, distraught following the death of his wife and one son, and in his own words feeling "more dead than alive," he took up running. In his 89th (!) year, Fauja ran his first marathon. Ten years later, he was still running, becoming the first 100-year old marathoner by completing the Toronto Marathon. And that wasn't his last race. When he finally stopped running at age 102, Fauja said:

"I have retired because given my age, my body has deteriorated a bit, but retirement hasn't slowed me down. I lead a very active and healthy life. I walk for three to four hours a day, play with kids and do all my day-to-day chores myself. I might have continued to run for another year but I realized I had to eventually retire one day."

This is coming from someone who began life with a birth defect that prevented him from walking. So, the next time you feel like you don't have the energy to exercise, think about how many years Fauja Singh has on you.

YOU CAN LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU WANT

Maybe your goals aren't athletic. You'd like to go back to school or learn a new skill. But it's just not possible - family, time constraints, and the older you are, the harder it is to learn something new.

Tell that to Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport. Earlier this year, at age 102, she received her Doctorate from Hamburg's UKE University Medical Center. She was supposed to have sat for her final examination for her Doctorate nearly 80 years ago, but was barred from doing so by the Nazis.

Dr. Syllm-Rapoport is a neonatologist, and wrote her thesis on diphtheria in 1938. Of course, medical science has experienced a few advances since then. To help her fill in the gaps, friends Googled the developments in diphtheria of the past eight decades.

Following her exam in May, the Dean of the medical school described Rapoport as "simply brilliant. We were impressed by her intellectual alertness and speechless over her expert knowledge, even in the area of modern medicine."

Now, what was that you were saying about how you'd like to learn something new but it's just too hard?

YOU CAN BECOME WHATEVER YOU WANT

Perhaps whatever your goal, you don't think you have the experience or the knowledge. You don't have the connections or the finances. You don't know what you're doing and you can't imagine how you could see your way to success.

It's time to imagine differently.

Just look at Kathy Delaney-Smith. Growing up in a working class Boston neighborhood, she rose to become one of the most celebrated coaches in women's college basketball. Only - when she started coaching, she knew zero about basketball.

When Delaney-Smith applied to coach the women's swim team at a Massachusetts high school, they hired her with the stipulation that she would also coach basketball. Starting with no knowledge, she read every book and attended every clinic she could. And she rigorously applied what is known as the "act as if" philosophy - with herself and her players. Over the next decade, she coached her team to 204 wins and a state championship prompting a call from Harvard.

Famous for its academics, Harvard is hardly an athletic powerhouse. Yet, Delaney-Smith plowed on with her "act as if" method, prompting Harvard's women's basketball team to go from a 4-21 record when she arrived to "acting as if" they could win the NCAA tournament in the first round from number 1 seated Stanford (and actually winning it).

Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Delaney-Smith applied the same "act as if" philosophy to her disease, never missing a practice no matter how she felt, and ultimately making a full recovery.

Now, what was that goal you said you were sure you could never accomplish?



Not everyone wants to run a marathon when they are 100 (or at all), or go back to school in their later years. Not everyone wants to become a top basketball coach. But every one of us has goals and dreams that often seem too big for us. Every one of us has a vision of greatness hidden away somewhere.

If you don't think you can, look at Fauja Singh, or Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport, or Kathy Delaney-Smith. Or the literally hundreds of other equally inspiring examples I've come across over the past few months. Or the amazing people at the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled (whom I will feature in an upcoming post).

Robert Kennedy, echoing George Bernard Shaw, once said, "Some men see things as they are and say, why. I see things that never were, and say, why not?"

Whatever you think you can do, you can do much more.

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I am running these five marathons for the amazing children and adults at the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled. We have set a goal of $5,000. Every donation of any amount makes a difference. Click here if you want to help us get to the finish line!