Finish Strong: An Ultra-Marathoner's Mindset for Year-End Success

You are two-thirds through 2024. Now is when you decide if you are going to apply the necessary commitment, resilience, and focus to achieve your goals for the year. Or perhaps you’ll submit to fatigue, discouraged that you haven’t progressed past 50% the way to your goal for the year and say “maybe next year”.

Right now, we find ourselves in the last third of the year—a period that can make or break our goals. Much like the final stretch of a marathon, this is where the real test begins, where every ounce of effort, focus, and determination counts.

This is the point in the marathon where:

• You’ve exhausted your superficial fitness.
• Every step you take is further than you ran in training.
• Your friend has already finished.
• You are going to rely on willpower, meaning, and desire to motivate you.

Before we dig into that, let’s go back to the beginning of the year when you set your goals (I hope). Let’s go back to the start of your marathon.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

The Start: Excitement and Adrenaline

Remember January? The fresh start, the excitement of new goals, the rush of adrenaline as you embarked on the journey to make this year your best yet. This is akin to the first few miles of a marathon. The energy is palpable, the enthusiasm high, and the path ahead feels full of promise. During this phase, you’re running on energy and aspiration—an incredible fuel that gets you out of bed early and pushes you through initial challenges.

A marathon is not won in the first few miles. The success of your year isn't determined in those first few months. It's easy to get caught up in the initial excitement, you might have set out at a pace you cannot sustain.

• What happens when the adrenaline wears off?
• Did you set objectives, goals, strategies and determine how to measure them?
• Are you consistently reminding yourself of the meaning behind achieving this goal?
• Can you sustain the delayed reward of achieving it? Or are you discounting it?

The Middle: Habits, Systems, and Consistency

The second third of the ear bring May, June, July, and August. It brings much better weather for running. It also brings distractions, barbecues, and beach beers. It brings opportunities for fun. For faster gratification. For dopamine hits. For hangovers.

The opportunities here to fall out of your rhythm, to fall off your training plan, to begin missing milestones along the way to your year-end goal, your finish linen are significant and everywhere.

Some have settled into a different rhythm: the importance of habits and systems already became clear. Commitment to the goal and the awareness of why it is meaningful were maintained. Consistency is paramount and prioritized.

Progress in the second third is not about how fast you’re going; it’s about maintaining steady pace. Your daily routines, the systems you’ve put in place, and your commitment to the process become the driving forces.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, emphasizes that “you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

A successful marathoner finds their pace and sticks to it, the systems, and habits you cultivate are the foundation of near, medium, and long-term success. Consistency isn’t always exciting, but the results most definitely are.

The Final Stretch: Focus, Discipline, and the "Why"

It’s September. You just had your last “summer weekend”. Your brain wants more fun, more barbecues, more instant dopamine hits.

This is the part of the marathon where the finish line is near, but it still feels so far away. Fatigue sets in, muscles ache, breathing is laboured, doubts may creep up, and the temptation to slow down or give up becomes real.

How you respond is critical at this phase phase.

Successful marathoners—and goal-achievers—draw upon their deep reserves of focus and discipline. They remind themselves why they started, what makes their goal meaningful, and they push through the discomfort.

Simon Sinek's concept of "Start With Why" is particularly relevant here. Sinek argues that understanding the deeper purpose behind your goals provides the inspiration and resilience needed to see them through.

Tap into your resilience. Reconnect with your "why." Draw energy from your supporters and cheerleaders.

Revisit the reasons that fuelled your ambition back in January. What were you hoping to achieve? Why does it matter to you? This clarity will provide the mental strength to push through any remaining obstacles. To maintain or even accelerate pace.

Crossing the Finish Line

The feeling of achieving meaningful goals that required sustained focus, effort and discipline is incredibly rewarding and motivating.

It’s the culmination of all your hard work, perseverance, and grit. It’s not just about the achievement itself, but about the journey you’ve undertaken to get there—the challenges you’ve overcome, the discipline you’ve shown, and the growth you’ve experienced.

As we enter the last third of the year, remember that this is your final push. The excitement of January may be a distant memory, and the grind of the middle months might have left you weary, but this is where you prove to yourself what you’re truly capable of.

Focus on your why, lean into your habits, and maintain the discipline needed to cross that finish line strong. After all, it’s not just how you start the race or how you manage the middle; it’s how you finish that truly defines your success.