Intensity Expands Capacity.

I ran six full marathons in 2022 and another nine in 2023, bringing the total marathons I ran in the past two years to fifteen. I participated in my first marathon in 2013 as an avenue to deal with the grief of losing my closest cousin. Finishing that first marathon in Accra, Ghana, took me over five hours. I have since participated in and finished 28+ Marathons in 19 different cities (Accra (4), Toronto (4), Cotonou (1), Lagos (2), Nairobi, Mississauga, Ottawa (2), Montreal (2), Vancouver, Edmonton, Hamilton, Fredericton, Halifax, Calgary, Manitoba, Regina, Quebec, Victoria and Prince Edward Island. I reduced my marathon finish time from 4 hours+ (pre-2021) to 3:44 in 2022 and 3 hours 20 minutes in 2023. It took a lot of intense training and consistency to pull it off, but it was worth the grind.

Extremity Expands Capacity

Your most significant gains don’t come from places you’re already at or where you’ve already been. Your greatest gains and successes happen when you push yourself to new places and new limits. You create an extreme condition compared to what you’re used to, and when you do that, you expand your capacity for success. Your new level of capacity becomes your new norm.

As you become more comfortable pushing yourself to extremes, you become more confident because you know what waits for you on the other side.

High degrees of activity produce energy, and you feed off this energy. Much like batteries, if you don’t use your energy, you tend to lose it over time. But when you use your energy, that produces even more energy. When you produce more energy, you can go to a more extreme place. Once you’ve been to that place, you’re able to see it, feel it, touch it, and understand what that new level of capacity is to you.

Maxing out your life creates a new extreme level. That new extreme level creates a new capacity and the place where you will grow and achieve the most results.

2022

The 2022 BMO Vancouver Marathon – 5:00:31 | Vancouver, British Columbia | May 1st, 2022
The 2022 Tartan Ottawa International Marathon – 4:37:39 | Ottawa, Ontario | May 29, 2022
The 2022 Servus Edmonton Marathon – 4:00:20 | Edmonton, Alberta | August 21, 2022,
The Beneva Montreal Marathon 2022 – 3:44:14 | Montreal, Quebec | September 25, 2022
The Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2022 – 3:56:14 | Toronto, Ontario | 16 October 2022
The Hamilton Road2Hope Marathon – 3:55:18 | Hamilton, Ontario | November 6, 2022

2023

Toronto Full Marathon, Ontario – May 7, 2023 – 4 hours 13 minutes
Stewart McKelvey Fredericton Marathon | New Brunswick | 3 hours 53 minutes | May 14, 2023
Emera Blue Nose Marathon, Halifax | Nova Scotia | May 21, 2023 | 4:02;56
Servus Credit Union Calgary Marathon | Alberta | 4 hours 31 minutes | May 28, 2023
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Marathon | Winnipeg | June 18, 2023 | 3:59:16
2023 GMS Queen City Marathon, Regina | Saskatchewan | 3:20:49 | September 10, 2023
Beneva Quebec City Marathon | Quebec | October 1st, 2023 | 3;20:59
Royal Victoria Marathon | British Columbia | October 8th, 2023 | 3:31:15
Prince Edward Island Marathon | Charlottetown | October 15, 2023 | 3:25:13

Half Marathons

Mississauga Half Marathon | Ontario |April 30, 2023 | 1:39:53
Marathon Beneva de Montreal Half Marathon | Montreal | 1;33 | September 24, 2023.

From Consistency to Intensity

One of the hallmarks of highly effective leaders is their level of commitment to excellence and personal growth. To get the results you aim for, you would have to try things you have not tried before. One needs to go from consistency to intensity. Most of us stay consistent, but only a select few get to the level of intensity or maniac obsession that greatness requires.

To reduce my marathon finish time from 3:44 to 3:20, I had to go from consistency to intensity, and that intensity ultimately increased my capacity. Completing the challenge in 2023 allowed me to have more confidence in my abilities and set more challenging goals, such as running a sub-3-hour marathon finish time. It is going to be tough, but I am willing to give it my best shot.

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt — Relationship

When relating with an employer, co-worker, distant relatives or neighbour, we tend to be on our best behaviour. But when relating with a sibling, partner, or best friend, we have known for years, our worst emotional patterns tend to play out. We get reactive when our partner says something insensitive, we lose our temper when our best friend makes plans, we become defensive when a family member shares criticisms.

We are almost sure to bring our worst tendencies to the surface with those we know the best and love the most. While these important relationships can bring out our worst habits, they can also be the source of the most growth. These close relationships are not only the most crucial to nurture and maintain, but they are also the easiest to damage.

Intimacy tends to bring out our vulnerabilities. A lost temper can do a lot of harm. The goal is to enrich our closest relationships with patience and compassion while listening from a place of openness and not opposing from a place of ego.

May we challenge each other with kindness and not criticize each other out of frustration. May we respond with respect not react with anger.

‘Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.’ – Rumi

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – Us/We, not You/Me

When we are at an impasse with someone, we often don’t take accountability for our role, and we all always have a role. Too usually, our stance is adversarial, which doesn’t help matters. Even if we are not responsible for creating an issue, how we engage with it is up to us. When we choose to confront it as a team, we set the stage for a healthier conversation and, therefore, a stronger outcome.

“The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.”― Margaret Carty

Daily Trip with Jeff Warren – A Secret to Better Boundaries

If we can keep contact with a sense of our own body when we interact with others then we are likely to stay grounded and independent and then have more space to respond how we want.