Last year, Josh and I started running.  Up to this point in our lives, we had never run more than a mile.  We’re not terribly active people.  I’ve never been to the gym in my life.  The only physical activity we take part in is occasional hiking and backpacking.  So you can see, our decision to start running was a drastic one.

On Sunday, Josh and I ran our first half-marathon.  13.1 miles.

Josh and I learned a great deal about life and filmmaking as we trained for our race.  I’d like to share just a few points.

1)  Set Goals. It is very important to have goals if you want to accomplish something (in our case, write and direct.)  Once you have those goals set, take baby steps every day/week to reach those goals.

If you focus on the big picture, you will quickly become overwhelmed.  (13.1 miles???)    But if you focus on the day to day tasks at hand, you’ll eventually reach your goal and you won’t realize how.

When we set out to make Dangerous Calling, our first feature, it was a pretty daunting task.  But we had a laundry list of things that had to be done and we just worked the plan, taking it little by little.  And now, we have a feature under our belt that we’re tremendously proud of.  Set a goal and take small do-able steps to achieve that goal.

2)  Conquer Your Mind. Running is just a mind game.  It’s all about pushing yourself past what you think you can do.

Every week, we’d run several short runs and then one long one on the weekend. What we discovered was that if we could run 4 miles, then 5 miles was doable.  If we could run 5, then 6 was doable.  Our bodies weren’t changing that drastically, just our minds – what we thought we could do.

Change your mind – decide that you are capable of more than you or anyone else thinks.

9 months ago, I thought running 13.1 miles was impossible.  I was wrong.  What are you attempting that looks impossible?