Motivational Leadership Speaker, Bestselling Oprah Author

How far can you walk?

A coupla miles? Five? Ten?

What if someone offered you a thousand dollars to go twice as far? Could you do it? Would you try?

Okay, what if someone offered you a million dollars to go, say, the distance of a marathon — 26.22 miles? Could you walk that?

I could. For a million bucks, I feel certain I could even run it — even though I have had two knee surgeries and can only run a few miles right now. For two million dollars, I bet I could run 50.

The question isn’t really how far you can go. It’s how long can you last. And I think that, when we have

to do something, we can do it if we make up our minds to just keep moving forward.

This is really that marathon moment where you can either push youself beyond your limits to get the success you want, or sit on the sidelines because you believe it is impossible. I hear from so many people who are getting so discouraged by the economy that they just leave the course. They are tired and convinced that any extra effort is simply an exercise in futility. The go into survival mode and do the math to figure out exactly how many dollars they need to make their bills — then come up with a plan to get that amount of money. That takes them out of the running.

If you hang in long enough, you will look around and see that your competition has vanished. Most people don’t have the stomach for adversity, so they try hard to find a safe place where they can be comfortable while sitting out the storm. Move forward one step at a time. Push through the backdraft. It is uncomfortable. It is unsettling. It is painful. But, persevere. You can still finish this race and get the t-shirt.