What Can We Learn From a Marathon Runner?

With the London Marathon taking place this weekend, there are many lessons professionals can learn from the dedicated and inspiring individuals who put their time and efforts into running a marathon. So we thought we would take a look at what these lessons we could be.
1. Marathon runners have goals that aim towards success
Many runners taking part in marathons have specific goals as to what they want to achieve, whether this be a time or a fundraising goal. With this goal in mind, they then put all of their efforts into training and devising a strategy and routine to help them perform and achieve the success they are after.
Similarly to PR and Marketing, a lot of our work is based around a goal and plans following a strategy. Maybe the objective is to engage with new clients or to increase the sales of a particular product? Visualisations are one of the most powerful motivational tools for runners and for business professionals, imagining the accomplishment you’re looking for and how it would feel, would greatly stimulate one to make this feeling a reality.
2. Realistic expectations
Although ambitions may be high like Callum Hawkins and his incredible course record of 2 hours 10 minutes and 52 seconds, runners need to remain realistic in their expectations and not be disappointed with their already amazing achievement of completing the marathon. No matter the efforts you put in, the day is completely unpredictable.
Being realistic is a major focus for professionals, especially PR professionals. It is always important to be realistic when looking at tasks, the length of time the task will take and the amount of resources you have available to help you succeed in the task. We can aspire like marathon runners for the best results possible with all factors taken into account, but keep objectives and ambitions realistic.
3. Persistence Pays Off
Persistence is a key tool for marathon runners. To keep pushing after all the blood, sweat and tears must be one of the toughest challenges to face. However, the same lesson is applicable to any business, projects will have set backs, obstacles and constrictions, however it is important to remain persistent and pushing forward and all of the efforts will make the achievement that much better.
4. Measure Your Performance
Runners will continually measure their performances and analyse them against past records and previous runners, this enables them to identify their points of greatness and points needed for improvement.
For runners and professionals, it is critical not to cloud your mind with the aspects of a particular project or run that didn’t go well, but to use this to aid you next time. For business milestones, look back and reflect on how you got to that particular point, what were the successful points and where could you improve?
Behind the face of a business and a marathon runner (aside from the muscle power) there is sheer persistence, determination and confidence to reach goals. Using all of the resources available to position you for success and being realistic with your own expectation. There are many lessons we can learn from runners and these are just a few.
We wish the best of luck to those running the London Marathon on Sunday 23 April.
Image - http://www.nspku.org/sites/default/files/gallery/eventImage_6_londonm2014.jpg