A game within a game

Every marathon runner at the start of the race is feeling great. Optimistic about the challenge ahead and the ability to meet it.

As the race goes on, your bum knee gets sore, your get thirst. The narrative changes. You have to come up with a game within a game.

Run to this _____________ (mile marker, tree or post), don’t think about the rest of the race yet. Just get there. Other parts of the race, you find your flow and you feel like you can accomplish anything.

It turns out, other projects have the same ebb and flow. You start out feeling pretty good but not too long you have push through the dip.

There is no shortcut through dips. It requires grit, imagination, a narrative that people like us can do stuff like this.

There are not many tricks to go through tough situations. But finding a game within a game, another purpose while things are falling apart, can be sufficient to help you on the push.