I was running on Sunday morning, and just as I passed my midway point with the sun beating down on my already withering body, I remembered what a fellow said to me in a restaurant a few weeks ago

He noticed the logo on my shirt and said he recognized the name from a couple of other folks who accosted him a few months back to buy a book called Little Voice Mastery. (They were participants from one of our programs performing a selling exercise!)

I asked him if he bought the book to which he replied, Yes, and as a matter of fact I have used it quite a bit. I asked him how. It turns out he is a triathalon coach in Phoenix. He said that he now tells his runners that if you have trained properly, eaten properly and all the restafter mile 12 of the marathon runit’s all Little Voice!

I nodded and agreed and told him that I actually wrote the book. He immediately put two and two together. He realized that the 13 year old with me was my son, Ben. And, thats Bens coach, Joewho I mentioned in the bookwas a personal friend of his.

All those niceties aside…I fast forward to Sunday mornings relentless sun and my dehydrated body. Every part of me wanted to stop, and I had every reason to do itI had run the day before, it probably wasnt healthy for me to keep going without water, plus nobody would know the difference (thats an interesting one!), and so on. Then I remembered this fellows words: …after that pointits all about Little Voice.?

And its true. The reason I run is as much to condition my Little Voice as it is to condition my body. And in that moment of fatigue and my Little Voice screamingI had to override it and say out loud in a gasping voice…THIS is why I am doing this!?To win the battle of my own brain.

And you know what? I ran the distance. Im still alive. And, I feel great. But, not because of the physical conditioningits because I won the big battle between my earsat least that day.

So, I guess after the halfway point, in any part of my lifewith all else being equal It IS all Little Voice to the finish.