Welcome to Creator's Compass – your guide to building an authentic personal brand online. Every week I share strategies for content creation and actionable tips to help you live more intentionally.
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I’ve always struggled with regular exercise. I had a gym membership when I was 18 and now at 27, I realised that's nine years of insufficient progress.
Damn. But something changed recently.
The movement of "doing hard things" has gripped me.
I've got into running after seeing many entrepreneurs and "runfluencers" apply their mindset and resilience into fitness pursuits.
Here's some people that have inspired me to start running:
I saw a post from Zach that said: "The best way to prepare for a half marathon is to run a half marathon." I took this to heart and ran a half marathon at 9pm in Bali.
Despite a slow of time of 2:55:00 I didn't stop and I couldn't believe I achieved the distance. Previously I would've told myself this would've required weeks, if not months, of prep. Nope. It was simply down to mindset.
George Heaton is the founder of Represent, he's achieving athlete-level results whilst growing a leading fashion brand. I find it baffling when entrepreneurs achieve athletic feats, as it reminds me that we all have the same hours in the week.
William Goodge is a model turned ultra runner. Recently I binged every one of his vlogs on YouTube as he ran across America and completed 48 marathons in 30 days in 2021.
I first came across Sophie during the pandemic. She recently ran the most consecutive marathons run by someone with cystic fibrosis... 36 marathons in 36 days. It's huge achievements like this that make the thought of running a half marathon, or even a first marathon, so much more achievable.
On an average day, how many times do you come across something you don't want to do?
A huge realisation for me this year is that progress isn't domain-specific.
If you challenge yourself to grow in your personal life, of course it will extend into your work, and vice versa. You've simply levelled up as a person and you're now capable of doing more.
To go to levels you've never reached, you need to develop mental strength, and that comes from doing anything you don't want to do.
According to Andrew Huberman, the anterior mid-cingulate cortex is the part of the brain that is reshaped by doing hard things.
If you enjoy running, you don't activate this part of the brain. But if you don't want to do it, it's activated and your capacity to do hard things get's larger.
I really hate running but that's exactly why I'm doing it. On top of getting fitter, I'm most interested in building up my mental strength.
If mental strength is a muscle, each challenge is an opportunity to strengthen it.
To take running more seriously, I've signed up to a half marathon on Sunday 15th December. This is scary af, but I now have to take training seriously and I will become a better version of myself for that.
There's a saying that the worst day of your life is when you meet the person you could've been.
This sends chills down my spine.
Tim Armoo says that success in business is "pretty much doing the boring 90% of work that nobody wants to do."
Inaction is a choice to not make progress.
Inaction is being content with staying where you are.
I don't want regrets, so I'm doubling down on building mental strength in all areas of my life to be able to do the boring, yet essential, work that moves the needle.
I'm sending energy and good vibes to anybody trying the same.
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." — Nelson Mandela
Thank you for reading Creator's Compass! I hope you found it valuable.
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