When I was younger, working in a fast food and not knowing what to do with my life, I always made negative assumptions about people running marathons.

I really could not understand what motivated them to waste their free time running for 4- 5 hours for no obvious reasons.

I was comparing to my situation and, as my job was more physical than intellectual and I was doing cycling as well to go to work, I could not think about doing a marathon in my free time!

I just wanted to relax after work and change my mind.

I was even thinking that because these people who have a nice paying job, working in an office, were not doing sport while working, it was a way to “ compensate “ and feel less guilty for them.

Why suffer 4–5hours for fun?

Life is already hard enough!

I was not liking my job at that time, I was working, “waiting for the Friday evening”.

I was in this situation because I wanted to start making money just after school (18-year-old) enjoy the “ freedom “to go to nightclubs, see girls, etc., and part of because I had no clue about what to do with my life.

I was thinking fast reward, small reward.

I could not project myself in a year or even 6 months, so, thinking about savings, studies and everything that takes time and consistency was out of my mind.

Actually, at that time, my girlfriend of this period, who was also working in the same fast food, decided to train for a few months and run her first marathon!

She told me that this was a challenge for her, she wanted to prove to herself she can do it.

That the kind of ideas I could not understand at that time…

Well, it went well for her, few times after her marathon she decided to quit the job, to move to the Capital and find a better job!

( No need to precise that I did not go and the relationship stopped ).

This was in 2012.

Fast forward up to 2019.

I am in Japan for the second time and I am motivated to start a path of exploration, trial, and errors to find a way to make money online.

That’s my main goal at that time.

I had no real ideas about how I would do it, so I had to explore many things, learn with Youtube videos, and experiment 🧪.

It was not an easy journey, the kind of change that puts you in the desert, walking without stopping, without knowing where you go, the only thing you know is: you should keep on walking and eventually the oasis would appear.

I had to learn many new skills ( hards and even soft ones, actually, they are the hardest to learn, funny that we call them “ soft “).

I even actually enjoyed the trip, it’s a quite lonely trip as it’s mainly a journey with yourself ( your fears, weaknesses, hopes, dreams ) but I met some people on the way, like Brother in arms, who made it easier.

I now have a job that I like much more, I am enjoying it and other related activities and I started to understand why people in this situation runs marathons!

To change your life and eventually become successful ( which is a very subjective notion anyway ) you need the mindset of a marathon runner.

It’s not comfortable for 4–5 hours but eventually, you feel proud and good at the end because you did not quit, you did not make excuses, you just put in the effort/work and consistency.

You know that you are not alone as other people are running the marathon, you just go at your speed and run sometimes with others on the way.

Exactly what you need to do for many things :

Saving money ( before I was saying: why should I save money ? It will be less money to spend now, so I will enjoy less my daily life ! I Want to have fun now, anyway I don’t visualize my future self ! ).

Now I start saving some money: eventually, my future self will be happy to have this extra amount of money for some bigger projects/holidays / personal stuff or even emergencies, who knows.

Change career ( before I wanted to start working straight away, why would I go 5 years to the university when I can start working now ? )

Now I understand the power of taking time to learn new skills!

You have to learn new things, be in a discomfort zone, not sure how long it will take and where you will go anyway.

You need to put in the effort and be consistent.

I don’t plan yet to run a marathon but maybe one day I will.

This time, I don’t want to become someone who would look at the people with short term goals, not happy in their life because they did not have the right mindset, and making fun of me who would run a marathon( my younger self ) with judgment, like “ oh, you are stupid you don’t understand that you need to change your mindset to have a better life! “

Instead, I’ll try to help people like my younger self, understanding this whole point.

This article is the first step in this direction.