Your mind is equally powerful in both the positive and the negative sense. How you choose to calibrate your mind and harness this power is up to you.This past weekend, I was faced with that choice… for all of 26.2 miles and for 4 hours and 42 minutes.

I ran the OC marathon last Sunday – it was my first one ever! Prior to this event, the longest I ran was 13 miles back in high school when I was 45 pounds lighter… I’ve been wanting to do a marathon since 1999 but just never got around to it.

Things kept popping up and I just kept finding excuses to NOT do it.

Well, several months ago I decided enough was enough. I wasn’t getting any younger so I signed up for the race and that was that. Months later, there I was at the starting line. I felt well rested because as part of my umm… “marathon training”, I tapered for the seven months leading up to the event.

…

In a sense this is much like how many of us start our businesses. Oftentimes we find ourselves taking that huge leap of faith and saying “no more excuses” and venture off on our own. The only thing is… many of us have never owned a business before and have absolutely no idea what to expect and how to run one.

No worries, you start off cruising, learning as you go, and letting your “passion” drive you. Much like running a marathon, you pace yourself and just soak up the venue and enjoying the scenery.

You sip the water that you wisely chose to take with you and chomp down on some “power gel”.

But what happens when you hit “the wall” at mile marker 20 when your muscles take turns cramping up; when you are afraid to stretch out because you might pull something; when your knees feel like they are going to explode; and when keeping your eyes open make you “tired”?

Do you take your eye off the prize and start thinking about the pain you are in? Do you let your fatigue get to your head and give up? Or do you power on ahead knowing that these hindrances are nothing compared to the prize that lies ahead.

Much akin to running a marathon, you will run into difficult times when running a business. There will be challenges that lie in your path to whatever it is that you seek as an entrepreneur. It is not the wisest, smartest, savviest, nor educated of us that become successful – it is oftentimes the most stubborn and yet passionate of us that prevails.

For me, crossing the finish line at the end of the 26.2 mile journey felt incredible. It made every painful step I took worth it. It gave me such a huge sense of accomplishment I wanted to pass out (or maybe that was just because I was so doggone tired, but you get the idea =] )

The victory wasn’t so much that I finished a marathon; it was that I followed through with my promise to myself to run a marathon and that in the face of hardship, I prevailed.

So I ask you, in times of fear and tribulation; in times of challenges and hardship; how are you harnessing the power of your mind?

Do you use it for good or for bad? Do you use that power to build yourself up or tear yourself down? For your sake and your business’s sake, I hope you are building yourself up.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

– Theodore Roosevelt