Ironman

A few weeks ago, my husband, Josh, went to Lake Placid and completed the Ironman -- a race that involves a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and essentially a marathon, a 26.2 mile run. Regardless of the unbelievable fact that he came in 5th in his age group and did it in under 10 hours (yeah, it's hot, no question), I found an interesting lesson in watching him get the idea to do it, train for it, complete it, and recover (currently.) Within Ladies Who Launch, I see women launch great ideas and businesses every day. They have brilliant minds, backgrounds, product or service ideas, philanthropic hopes and dreams - all of it. As an organization our job is to provide the tools, community and resources for them to meet their goals and be as successful as they want to be. But, you know what we can't do? We can't focus them. It's each of our jobs to focus our own distracted, ambitious (and lazy) selves...and not only innovate with ideas but actually do something about them. I watched my guy train for up to six hours a day, chart his progress, follow a rigorous sleep and eating schedule and cancel or amend plans in order to prioritize his goal; qualify for Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October. Nothing, literally, nothing, not even the car that hit him 2 months ago and sent him to the ER or the recurring knee spasms or subsequent thumb surgery would get in his way.

Here's what I learned about goal-getting from my uber-focused bedmate: Read More »