I rolled my eyes so hard that I swear I could hear my mom say, “They’re going to get stuck like that,” the first time a friend suggested running the 4x4x48 Goggins Challenge back in March of 2022. Why on Earth would I want to run 4 miles every 4 hours for almost 48 hours, equaling a total of 48 miles?
“Yes, I’m a runner, but I’m not that kind of runner,” I thought.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling deep down. Something in my soul stirred, and as the start date drew closer, I knew I was going to do it (kind of reminds me of the feeling I had when I started my business all those years ago). There would be multiple runs at midnight and 4 a.m. and a boatload of other runs for almost two days straight. It seemed impossible and wild (again, entrepreneurship vibes).
If you’re not familiar with David Goggins, you should be. He is a testament to what a human being can truly endure and overcome. His military career is beyond impressive (he is the only person to date who has gone through the Navy Seals’ infamous Hell Week three times), as is his daily fight to start from zero and crush his goals.
You might not think there are similarities between running a 48-hour running challenge and being an entrepreneur, but there are many!
Here are a few that stuck out to me:
Mindset
Such an overused term, I know, but in this case, it was true. Like entrepreneurship, it was fun, exciting and kind of easy initially… but things got real fast. When you have to wake up and go run 4 miles at midnight and 4 AM two days in a row, you start to wonder why you started this ridiculous journey.
Sound familiar? When business dips, or clients ghost you on your invoices, you start to wonder why you’re doing this. Can I go on? Should I go on? Is it worth it? A job with a consistent paycheck (not to mention benefits) sounds just as nice as my warm bed in the middle of the night.
But then, you get through it (the runs and the hard times) and realize you’re on this journey for a reason!
Related: How Spending Time Alone Has Transformed My Life
Planning
Good gravy, this challenge had way more planning than I anticipated, much like running a small business!
For the challenge, I had to plan out my food (which was honestly one of my favorite parts because I love to eat), find a gym membership in my small town with 24/7 access (I didn’t want to run outside in the middle of the night), multiple changes of clothes, a playlist of music and podcasts, schedule around family activities (because it was two days and we still had stuff to do) and the hardest one: how to sleep after running in the middle of the night (you have to figure out to run fast enough to get the torture over with, but also not get your heart rate so high that you would be up all night)!
In business, we plan for everything. What is our marketing strategy? How do we balance (another annoying buzzword that I hate but can’t find another equivalent) family and business? What are our financial systems? What is our onboarding process? How and when do we bring on an employee, and what does that look like?
This challenge helped me break up planning into compartments, and I could take this same approach to planning in my business. I am a pen-and-paper, write-out-a-to-do list kind of girl, but I realized I could use this experience and create a flowchart in business as I did with the challenge.
Related: 10 Growth Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know
Gratitude
When I finished my last run, I broke down and ugly cried. I don’t cry, ask anyone that knows me well, but there were so many emotions. One of the biggest emotions was how grateful I was to finish and that I was even able to do something like this. Sure, the exhaustion might have contributed, but the feeling in my gut was life-changing, and I haven’t been the same person or business owner since.
We can do hard things, and I was so grateful that I could experience something incredibly hard and realize that I can do so much more than I thought I could. We all can!
I have since learned how to look at hard times, hard clients, hard people, hard anything with gratitude (trust me, not every time) and realize that it will help me somehow. I don’t always know how during that time, but usually, I can look back and be grateful for the experience. Gaining that perspective (even most of the time) has helped enormously in both business and life.
I would like to encourage (challenge) you to try something hard, whatever that looks like for you.
By the way, I have run this challenge two more times since the first time and have a goal to do it multiple times a year because it really brings me back to a mental state that I love and crave now!
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