Ferate's 5: Recognizing Your Progress & Time Being Undefeated. (021)

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Why is it so tough to see your own progress?

Happy Halloween! This week’s newsletter is all about progress, time being undefeated, and incredible life experiences.

This past weekend was the 2-month mark of finishing my 100-mile Ultra Marathon in Bend, Oregon. It took me 31 hours and 49 minutes to cover 100 miles, 12,000 feet up and 12,500 feet down.

I moved from my apartment to a new house this week which added a little stress and noticed putting a lot of my energy towards things that I didn’t necessarily want to do. Packing, cleaning, moving, etc

At times my mind felt like a Formula 1 race, go go go in overdrive. Have you ever felt that moment where you just had to get things out of your head? I wanted to spend that energy on training, writing, and working on the projects I wanted to do, but instead, I directed a lot of it towards knocking out this move! Got to get that deposit back ya know!

Throughout the week though I am grateful for it all because it challenged me to think differently and notice something.

My reflection this week is “Why is it so hard to notice our own progress?”

I don’t know about you, but for me, it is easy to see success in others and actually tell them “Man you’re killin it”. I would literally say that exact quote. So simple to recognize and celebrate others’ success. But when it comes to myself, what happens? What am I missing? Man I should do that, you gotta do this, shoot I can do better, those are all things that start to sneak into my inner monologue. Need to be more consistent, while at the same time I am consistent, right?

Time Is Undefeated.

It is crazy how quickly time can go by. Time is undefeated and the only way we can compete with time is to take action. To do things, create memories and experiences, to become the type of person we want to be. Two months after my ultra marathon made me realize how crazy it is that time just keeps plugging along.

It is easy to jump right back into the routine and get into that “groove”. We like the groove but also can’t live and die by it.

Does the “groove” or routine align with who I want to become? What am I optimizing for? Is that what I want to want?

Life can sometimes be like the news cycle. Something crazy happens, becomes a headline, time goes by, another headline knocks them off the top spot, and we forget it happened. Maui fires, war, breaking news, and some crazy murder mysteries blow up on social media.

For example, I couldn’t even think of something in pop culture from even 1 year ago. October 31, 2022. I got you though… googled it… there was a suspension bridge collapse in India that killed +100 people.

Sports have this effect too but maybe in a different way. I can’t remember what happened on the news 2 years ago but I sure could tell you the 2001 Mariners roster or the best fantasy football team I have ever had.

Does A World Record Holder Feel The Same Way?

ABSOLUTELY INSANE moment this past week was Harvey Lewis winning the Big Dog’s Backyard ultra and breaking world records! He ran for almost 5 straight days covering 108 hours and running 450 miles!

Let that sink in….

The framework for the race is competitors run a 4.16-mile loop every hour. The extra time within that hour can be used to “rest” or refuel but all racers must start their next loop at the top of the hour.

Then on repeat like your favorite song, except for WAY LONGER. There is no finish or end. The race ends when all other participants have dropped or withdrawn. When there is only one left.

Harvey Lewis.

Harvey FREAKING Lewis. Averaged 52 minutes for all of his 4.16-mile loops giving him an average of 8 minutes to sleep, eat, and do whatever else you do to get ready for the next one.

My question is for Harvey and the two other competitors who weren’t able to keep going after loop 103 and loop 107 respectively.

• How do they not just hop right back into life and let the experience fade away like the news? 

• Where does that magic go?

• How does Harvey use that experience to become more of who he wants to be?

• Does he acknowledge his success or just look to one-up the race?

At times I get a high from thinking “holy shit man I can’t believe I ran a 100-mile race.” or I tear up thinking about people who supported me throughout. Like RC texting Connor Johnston at mile 84, “This is the fun part.” At the same time, something jumps back into getting caught up in the day-to-day challenges.

What I need to ask is, what day-to-day challenges are actually essential?

It’s the inner voice battle telling you to do more. Recognizing that we may be killing it, but that voice telling you to do more is probably the reason why you are killin it. Your voice is saying you’re not, because you are (I guess). It’s an infinite game. One of those crazy-ultra-life-marathons where you just keep running at different speeds, hitting different challenges, aid stations to refuel, and then start running again towards what you want.

Just like when racing, everything comes in waves. The good, the bad, and all the progress. Not knowing how long each will last.

I Think These Are Solutions.

Recalibrate your perspective: Look at what you are doing from the 3rd person. Like you are helping your best friend in your entire life. The way we look at things and talk to ourselves changes. Write out your highlight reel or epic life resume to update the way you talk to yourself.

Time is undefeated, the only way we can compete is to take action: Jesse Itzler shared this lesson that I love. Time is undefeated it is going to keep plugging along like it always has. The only way to compete is to take relentless action. Time can never call a time out, go back, and take that experience away from you. Once you have taken that action, and lived out that experience it becomes officially yours!

Memory dividend: Bill Perkins shares this concept in his book “Die With Zero”. The "memory dividend" is the return on investment in life experiences and enjoyment. It encourages individuals to prioritize experiences and quality of life in the present, rather than deferring everything to a distant future that is uncertain. Similar to getting a kickback from your investments a memory dividend also gives you a kickback. That kickback is reliving those experiences with your buddies, retelling that funny story, and getting a return on investment months and years after it happened.

Thank you for checking out this week’s newsletter. If there was a specific part that you enjoyed the most please reach out and let me know. I love it when readers reach out to connect and share.

This week was a good reminder to me to not let my life be like the news cycle. Be aware of those moments when I feel like I jump right back into the “typical” day-to-day. One of my favorite podcasters, Chris Williamson summed up into one tweet.

Keep killin it, stacking daily deposits, and making every day the best day of the year until tomorrow!

Ferate