The Mile You're In

While I've not read Ryan Hall's book "Run the Mile You're In," the sentiment very much speaks for itself, I think. 

This morning, I had a tough training run, the bulk of which was running five mile-long sprints at 9.5mph pace. Each of them was quite difficult, and at the beginning of the run, I wasn't sure I was really up to the task today -- just generally tired. But I made it through that first sprint to my two-minute walking rest/recovery. Then the next. And before I knew it, I was actually getting energized during my third sprint, and knew I was going to manage to finish. However, if I thought about the entirety of the set at the beginning, I may well have given up on it and either done a slower pace (and few miles) or shifted entirely over to the elliptical. But breaking the run down one mile at a time, and even within each of those miles, breaking it down even further, was exactly what I needed to finish it off.

Obviously, this also has its applications to other areas of life than just running. If you have a daunting task, break it down into parts and then just focus on the individual part that you're working on. It will make things much more attainable.