Forward Momentum

How many of you can spot someone who is leading themselves? You can see it, can’t you?

The way they seem to be one step ahead, prepared, confident.

I think one of the biggest myths about leadership is that leadership starts when someone gives us authority. I’ve come to believe leadership begins the moment we decide to lead ourselves.

A few years ago, I found myself standing on a treadmill.

And honestly, I didn’t think I was having a grand leadership moment.

I was out late the night before, burned out, overworked, stressed, and disappointed I wasn’t taking better care of myself. I stared at the treadmill display and asked myself a question.

Could I run for just 30 seconds?

That small, seemingly inconsequential decision led to seven marathons, including six of the World Marathon Majors, earning the Six Star Medal, writing a book, and eventually standing on a TEDx stage.

But none of that was visible that morning when I made the decision to run for 30 seconds.

And looking back now, it had nothing to do with running. It had everything to do with leading myself.

What I didn’t know then was that those 30 seconds would teach me three lessons:

• How to trust myself.
• How to choose to move forward before certainty
• And eventually how to learn to let go

And it all started with just 30 seconds.

Before anyone else chooses to follow us, we have to become someone we’re willing to follow ourselves. And that begins with the promises we keep when no one else is watching.

I have a feeling (that many of you reading) are very good at keeping promises to everyone else – the client, the team, the family.

But the promises we make to yourself? Those are often the first ones we break. And eventually something dangerous happens. We stop trusting ourselves.

Have you ever caught yourself saying, “I’ll start on that next Monday.” “Things will slow down next month.”

How many of you have broken a promise to yourself? Me too. Every promise we break chips away at our trust. Every promise we keep becomes evidence that we can trust ourselves.

That morning, I wasn’t trying to become a marathon runner. If you had told me someday I would run 26.2 miles for fun, I would’ve thought you were crazy.

I was simply trying to keep one promise. And something surprising happened. The next day, I ran again, and I trusted myself a little more; the day after that, a little more.

That trust started to grow and entered into other parts of my life.

I thought I was learning to run. I was actually learning to trust myself.

Trusting yourself begins with keeping promises to yourself.

Trusting myself required something extra: choosing courage over certainty.

I think we spend too much of our lives waiting. And I don’t mean waiting in line at Britt’s Donuts or waiting for the next season of Bridgerton. I’m talking about waiting until we feel confident, waiting until we have more experience or until the timing is perfect.

Leadership often asks us to choose before we’re certain – before we feel qualified, before anyone gives us permission.

Mid-career, I found myself working at SAS. If you’re familiar with the Triangle, you know SAS is an amazing employer. For nearly six years, everything looked exactly the way success is supposed to look. I had a cohesive team, a boss who supported me, and I was making money.

Everything about my job was safe and certain, but there was one problem.

I couldn’t shake this voice in my head. It said, “You’re capable of more. “Is this all you want to be?”

That realization was terrifying.

Because once you’re honest with yourself, you can’t unknow it, and now you have a choice: stay where you are or become someone new.

I chose to leave SAS and dove into the deep end of the uncertainty pool at a startup. The plan was to change the world! Instead, it mainly changed my resume as this startup went belly up.

Setbacks are part of the process.

Those experiences prepared me for the next chapter, choosing to write a book.

I had no idea how to write a book. I remembered something a manager told me in my first “big girl” job: “Use the resources around you to bolster your weaknesses.”

I found a writing group and showed them my book. They told me to delete chapter 7.  I loved chapter 7!

Readiness isn’t what comes before action; readiness grows because of action.

Choosing to move forward before “ready” is a superpower. What would it look like for you to tap into that superpower?

Something I tell the runners I coach is this: Forward is a pace.

Running for 30 seconds is moving forward; writing a sentence, choosing the next step is forward. It doesn’t have to be a giant leap or taking a big risk to move you closer to the person you are becoming. It can be as small as 30 seconds. It starts with choosing courage to take the next step.

Editor’s note: “The 30-Second Shift from Within” was the focus for ROBYN GODFREY’s keynote talk at this summer’s WILMA’s Leadership Accelerator. Godfrey, a Best-Selling Author, RRCA Running Coach, and TEDx Speaker, was one of several female athletes and coaches who shared leadership lessons from the world of women’s sports at the conference. Above is an excerpt from her speech at Leadership Accelerator. To hear the full talk, go to WILMALeadership.com.

To view more of photographer Madeline Gray’s work, go to madelinegrayphoto.com.

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