June 9, 2025 • 23 mins
This one’s personal.
I had to write “DNF” next to my name today—Did Not Finish—and it stung more than I expected. Not because my legs gave out. But because my mind did.
In this episode, I walk you through a run I didn’t finish and the hard truth behind it: I wasn’t mentally bought in. I showed up thinking I could coast off past accomplishments, that grit alone would carry me. But here's what I learned—without the mind, the body doesn’t stand a chance.
We dive into:
- Why showing up physically isn’t enough
- The importance of mental rehearsal, visualization, and internal cues
- What regret feels like when you almost went the distance
- 5 ways to train your mind like your body
- And why pain isn’t the enemy—comfort is
This isn’t about running. It’s about how we all face moments where the challenge hits harder than expected—and how the ones who make it through aren’t the strongest, but the most prepared.
If you’re chasing something big, if you're struggling with self-doubt, or if you've ever come up short and hated the way it felt—this episode is for you.
Don’t trade your potential for ease. Don’t live a life full of almosts. Get mentally bought in—and keep getting after it.
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I hope today’s episode sparked something within you to pursue your dreams and unlock your true potential. If you found value in it, consider sharing it with someone who might need that same push.
This podcast is built for you—the dreamers and the doers. My goal is to provide a space where you can find inspiration, learn from others, and feel empowered to chase what matters most to you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brett (00:00):
My friends, welcome back to the Getting After it podcast.
As always, happy you're here.
It means a lot that you justdecided to sit down with your
friend Brett today and talkabout some things.
I have been having a tough day.
It's been an interesting oneNot tough as, like you know, I'm
in an existential crisis thingbut mentally it's been a hard
(00:22):
day and I'll go into why.
Crisis thing, but mentally it'sbeen a hard day and I'll go
into why.
But the whole point of thisepisode is to talk about the
importance of keeping the bodyand mind tied to the same goal.
Without the body, the goalscan't be done.
Without the mind, you might aswell not be in control.
(00:42):
They have to be tied together,they have to be intertwined in
there, whatever goal that you'redoing.
So, without further ado, let'sget after it.
Okay, why is Brett having ahard day?
Well, a couple reasons.
Reason number one my wife isnot here.
(01:03):
She is in Vegas taking a test.
And reason number two is theexact reason this podcast is
being recorded.
I was invited by my friendBraden, who is an absolute beast
.
He's a runner.
I met him when I ran the Ragnarrace with my company and he
just showed up, he was a friendof one of the runners that we
(01:24):
had my company and he justshowed up he was a friend of one
of the runners that we had andinstantly this dude was speaking
my language, shows up with thego one more hat, like all the
things.
He's just a beast and I'vewatched him over the years like
grow in his running skills and,uh, it's been cool to watch.
But anyways, he, he messaged meand he's like hey, my friend
Dylan, for his 31st birthday, isrunning 31 miles and this run
(01:48):
was at a park and it was aone-mile loop, so very, very
monotonous, like that is.
You can get pretty tired of aone-mile loop that you're going
to have to run 31 times, but,being me, I was like that's
exactly what I want to do, likeeverything sounds great there,
(02:09):
the challenge of pushing myself,the grind, the distance, the
suffering, all of that.
That's what I love, because inthose moments bonds are formed
and you learn a lot aboutyourself.
Bonds are formed and you learna lot about yourself.
And when I got to the, to therun this morning, uh, I woke up
(02:31):
at 5am, got there, the racestarted.
It wasn't a race.
The run starts at six.
And so I'm there and I meetthis dude for the first time.
Don't know him, his name'sDylan, dylan Hayes, um, or Dylan
Mays.
I met him today, so cut me someslack, but the guy's a beast.
Like the fact that this guywants to run 31 miles for his
31st birthday.
Again, speak in my language.
(02:53):
What's a better way tocelebrate than doing something
hard with your friends?
Because at the end of that,you're going to be more than
friends, you're going to bebrothers in arms or sisters in
arms.
There were a couple girls theretoo, and when I show up it was
rad.
So they had a, a pop-up tentlike one of those canopies.
(03:14):
Underneath the canopy they hadgels, they had fruit, they had
electrolytes, water, um,sunscreen, chafing stuff, cause
you do chafe at that distanceand they had this whole thing
set up and I was just like thatis rad, like this dude set up
this entire run, this 31 milerun for his friends to come out,
for them to, to suffer with himand do something difficult
(03:34):
altogether, again, speaking mylanguage, and I wasn't mentally
bought in.
I noticed that the first, thefirst thing I did when I woke up
is I noticed like this isdifferent than other races I've
prepped for or other runs thatI've prepped for.
Because, in my mind, this iswhere the ego comes into play
(03:55):
and this is going to be a hardepisode for me to record,
because in my mind, I am someonewho can show up and do a 50 K
race.
That's nothing right, or I liketo think that it's nothing.
That's very wrong.
And so I showed up and Istarted running and it felt
pretty good.
(04:15):
Um, but around mile seven I'vebeen having this issue with my
quad, where it'll like, seize upand it'll get.
It'll feel like it's deadweight and I'm I'm lugging this
sandbag through through wetconcrete.
That's what it feels like andbecause of that, like my running
form gets all messed up andit's all.
It just causes a bunch ofissues.
And around mile seven thatstarts picking up and it feels
(04:36):
like someone took a knife,jabbed it into my leg and just
left it there and twisted it acouple of times.
And so I'm fighting off thispain.
I'm like, whatever it's justthere, deal with it.
And as I'm going around, I keepthinking, oh man, I got a
marathon in two weeks.
Like is this gonna happen on mymarathon in two weeks?
Like maybe I need to take iteasy.
And so I'm running.
I'm like, whatever, get throughmile eight.
(04:57):
I'm like, yeah, still havingthose thoughts, I'm not gonna
listen to it.
But something happened, likemile nine.
I kept thinking about the racethat's coming up, the grandma's
marathon that I'm running withAllie on the 21st, and for some
reason my mind got the best ofme and it was like, hey, you
(05:19):
probably should take it easy,you should maybe just ease up a
little bit.
And so embarrassed to say this,but around mile 10 and a half,
I, I, I stopped the run and hehad a book there where people
could come uh, write their namedown and and how many miles they
did.
And I wrote brett rossel, 10and a half miles.
(05:39):
And then in parentheses I wrotea big DNF, did not finish.
That was hard and it might notseem like something that's a big
deal, or it might not seem likesomething that actually is hard
.
It's like, oh, brett'scomplaining he dropped out of a
31-mile race but still got 10.5miles in.
I know, I understand it soundssilly, but for me in my mind, I
(06:03):
was going to run those races butI hadn't committed.
I was going to run those miles,but I didn't commit to it.
And that's the point of whatwe're talking about today,
because if you remember metalking about the Vegas Marathon
, I kind of had that sameattitude show up, I was training
my brother and my cousin at thetime and I was running lots of
miles.
I ran a 50K earlier that year.
(06:24):
So I was like feeling goodabout myself and my progression
and I just thought I'd be ableto show up and do it.
And that wasn't the case either.
I had an asthma attack and thatscared me, so I dropped out.
It's happened twice now where Ithink that I'm a better runner
than I actually am and I goafter these goals that are maybe
(06:46):
a little bit too out there forme at the moment.
And by all means, I know I canrun a 50K race, but I wasn't
bought in.
I didn't believe that I wasgoing to finish this run today.
I thought I would just show upand get it done, and I hope that
makes sense, because you can't.
You can't have half a goalthere.
(07:07):
You can't have a body thatworks well and a mind that
decides to quit, because you canbe as strong as a lion, but if
your mind isn't there, you mightas well not even try and go
after the goal because you'regoing to drop out, you're going
to quit when it's when it startsto get hard.
And that's the point that Imissed.
I didn't visualize, when thingsgot hard, what I was going to do
to to combat those feelings, toget through those moments where
(07:30):
you know I, I start feelingsome pain, I start doubting
myself because guess what, onraces that happens.
You will feel pain.
You might doubt yourself.
If you've trained well enoughand if your mind is bought in as
well as it should be, maybethat won't happen to you the,
(07:50):
the mental doubt piece, but Ican guarantee you pain will come
.
Pain is something that is anold friend on a race, like when
your legs start tapping out.
You have some hardconversations with yourself and
maybe with your legs you say,hey, kicking into gears stupid
pieces of S, I'll, uh, censormyself there, but it was tough.
(08:14):
Because, going back to the, theexample and the story that I
told, I want to be known as arunner that can do that, but I'm
not there yet.
I will get there, but it'sgoing to take years and I feel
like I am a decent runner.
But there's always room forimprovement and it's a goal that
(08:38):
I'll always be chasing.
And so, yes, today sucked.
Today sucked that I'll alwaysbe chasing.
And so, yes, today sucked.
Today sucked that I had to stoprunning and I went to the gym
and ran another six milesbecause I felt like crap.
So total for today was 16 and ahalf miles, but I still feel
crappy about that because Idropped out of today's run.
(08:59):
Not as fun as a topic as I'dlike it to be, but it is what it
is and that's the point of whyI'm sharing this, because I want
you to see that on your ownjourney, there will be, there
will be roadblocks.
I talk about this all the time.
How are you going to handlethem when they show up?
So I wrote this big, longjournal entry today because I
(09:23):
was just thinking about, likeokay, well, what could I be
doing?
That's different.
And here's what I wrote.
I'll skip to the middle here.
I said here's the truth.
I keep circling around.
Resilience is not just physical.
I've built the engine, the legsare there, but if the mind
isn't locked in, the body won'tmatter.
The mind has to be the general,not the physical.
I've built the engine, the legsare there, but if the mind
isn't locked in, the body won'tmatter.
(09:43):
The mind has to be the general,not the passenger.
And I didn't have a plan forthe war today.
No visualization, no mentalrehearsal, no clear decision
made before we started.
I showed up physically, but notmentally.
I was hoping it'd work out.
That's not enough, not for thedistance, not for life.
You can't halfway chase hardthings and expect full rewards.
(10:05):
A strong body is a halfcommitment.
A strong mind makes it whole.
I need to get better atpreparing, at visualizing, at
accepting that suffering isn'tthe enemy, it's part of the path
.
Long distances are not justabout fitness, they're about
fire, and the fire's lit in themind.
I've been acting like I'malready the guy who can do that,
(10:25):
who can show up and run a 50koff instinct.
But I'm not there yet, Not evenclose, and pretending I am is a
fast track to stagnation.
To become the one who rises, theone who endures, I need a mind
that doesn't blink at pain, amind that smiles at the storm
and says you're exactly what Itrained for, because comfort,
(10:46):
comfort is a liar.
It whispers, take it easy, butit leaves you restless, half
lived and hollow.
Here's the truth, and I wrotethis to myself again.
This is a.
It's going to tell you a lotabout me.
Brett, you are made for morethe runner.
You are the runner who rosefrom the dead, rebuilt your own
discipline and is now forginginto the elite.
(11:08):
Don't let comfort claim yourcrown.
Don't trade potential for ease.
You've got work to do andthat's how I'm looking at this
experience, not as a pity memoment, not as a I didn't hit
the goal that I wanted to.
As a time for reflection, as atime to sit down with myself and
say where did I miss?
(11:29):
And it's very clear that todayI missed it in the mental
capacity.
Where your mind goes, your bodywill follow, but there is an
illusion of readiness.
Like I said, like I showed upphysically, but mentally I was
hoping it would work out.
Like I said, that's not how youwin, that's not how you do it.
(11:50):
Michael Jordan he practicedhours and hours in the gym, but
he also, in his spare time, Iassume, was practicing the shots
in his head, the moves on thecourt, what his opponents would
do, how he would combat thosemoves and what he was going to
do mentally in the game.
That is crucial for anyone'ssuccess.
(12:10):
Being mentally bought in meansthat you need to prepare your
mindset with the same vigor thatyou prepare your body, for it
separates the athlete from theamateur Today I showed up as an
amateur.
It separates the athlete fromthe amateur Today I showed up as
an amateur Separates the doersfrom the dreamers.
Marcus Aurelius wrote this quotethat I've said many times.
You have power over your mind,and not outside events.
(12:33):
Realize this and you will findstrength.
The goal doesn't care how fityou are, it cares how focused
you are.
And focus isn't a feeling, it'sa skill that we can hone in.
So if your mind isn't leadingthe drive, it's not leading the
initiative.
Your body will break.
(12:55):
People say that pain is theenemy.
I would say that it's not.
Confusion, is Doubt, isHesitation, is.
Your brain's job is to keep yousafe.
That's really what it's good atdoing.
It's to keep you safe.
Still thinks we're running fromtigers.
But what we face today, thefears that we have, they're
(13:15):
dressed up as discomfort and notnecessarily death.
And so, in my mind, yes, andnot necessarily death.
And so in my mind, yes, runninga 50K won't kill me.
But when I am running it, mymind says, hey, it might.
It might take you off.
It tells me to slow down, ittells me to quit.
It's trying to protect me, butthat safety is a lie.
(13:41):
Comfort does not satisfy, like Isaid it.
Like I said, it's a liar and itwhispers for you to take it
easy, but it leaves you restless, it leaves you half lived and
it leaves you feeling hollow.
Why do you think?
I decided to go run six milesafter I had this, this run this
morning.
It was rough and because Iwanted to prove that maybe I
(14:02):
could go and push myself alittle further.
And so that's what I did.
And you know it's it.
It did tell me hey, you, youstill have more to give.
And the whole time I was, I wasrunning that six miles, I was
like I wish I, just I wish Istayed.
And that is, that is the exactpath I never want to be on is
(14:23):
living a life of regret.
It's exactly how I feel today.
I feel like I'm regretting, notpushing past that pain, because
maybe, if I sat down for alittle bit and gunned out my leg
or whatever I could have doneto ease up the pain and get my
muscle feeling a little looser,maybe I could have done it In
fact, I know I could havebecause I've done it before in
(14:45):
much worse conditions but thebrain stopped me today, and I
hate to say that, but it is true.
And it made me realize thatresilience starts before the
race, because you can't becomeresilient during.
It's all built in the quiethours before, either in your
(15:06):
training or in the mentalpreparation Like we've been
talking about with visualization, you know, playing out
scenarios in your head.
That's important.
Your rehearsals and yourself-talk that you play in your
mind, uh, that's what you needto be focused on.
And you need to ask yourselfwhen the moment comes, have you
(15:27):
already seen it in your mind?
When the pain hits, have youalready trained for that
conversation with yourself?
When your brain says stop, doyou have a script of how you're
going to respond to it?
That's being mentally bought in.
It's intentional, it'srelentless, but it's very
quietly powerful.
(15:48):
Suffer the pain of discipline orsuffer the pain of regret.
And I'm facing the pain ofregret, guys.
It's not a good feeling, sodon't do it, don't give up,
don't quit.
It's crappy, it's not fun.
You don't want to live a lifewhere you get to the end of it
and you think of all the thingsyou could have done differently
(16:09):
that could have gotten you tothe place that you wish you
could have been.
That's a life of regret, and sothat's why I'm talking about.
You have to be mentally boughtand you have to believe that you
can do these things and youhave to believe that when, when
challenges arise, that you'remade for more and that you're
able to push through them,because we all are, we all can
push through, we all can endure.
It's just training the brain tobe able to do that.
(16:32):
And that might look like, hey,if you're working out and you're
struggling and you're doingcardio for 30 minutes, that's
what's on the schedule and youcan't wait for that 30 minute
mark, but when it comes, maybetry and go an extra five and
just see if you can push past it.
That's having the conversationwith discomfort in the moment,
and that's all in the training.
(16:53):
And you need to train for thesetimes, because they will arise,
where you doubt yourself, whereyou don't know if you can do
the thing that you set out to do, and you need to be ready for
those.
Prime your mind, get ready forit.
It's not about showing up andtrying to be tough.
(17:17):
It's about being trained.
It really is.
It's being trained to smile atthat discomfort.
It's being trained to keepgoing when that voice says to
quit.
It's being trained to lock inbefore the storm even begins.
And, like I said, I'd like tobe there.
I want to be there and I thinkI have some work that needs to
do.
But as for you, try and becomesomeone who doesn't necessarily
(17:40):
beg for mercy, who is pushingpast their own limitations that
they thought they had forthemselves and realize they're
made for more.
Show up prepared to the fight.
Don't be surprised by the pain.
Expect it, because it's goingto come.
Don't trade your potential forease.
(18:04):
That's a scary thing to do.
We all can fall into thatrather quickly.
And so what can you do?
Here's what I want you to doand sit down and think about
whatever goals in front of you.
These five points will help youat least make some kind of
progress towards them.
The first is visualize the painbefore whatever next challenge
(18:25):
arises.
Rehearse it in your mind.
Feel the pain ahead of time soit doesn't rattle you.
If you can do that, you'realready a step ahead of many
people.
Two is, I would say developmental cues like write phrases
you can repeat to yourself whensuffering hits.
And I was talking to my brotherabout this today, actually
because he ran up in themountains, um, and he was
(18:46):
telling me about this big oldhill that he had to run up.
And I told him.
When I'm training in themountains, I always tell myself
that the uphills are tough, butthe downhills are my reward for
it, because anytime you go up,guess what?
You have to come down.
That's a law we all have toabide by because of nature, and
the same goes for in themountains.
Usually, when you get up to ahill, there will be a down piece
(19:09):
.
Sometimes that hill keeps goingand going and going, but
eventually you will be goingdown.
All mountains have descendingsides.
So think about some phrasesthat you can tell yourself.
Three, I would say, is crucial.
And you need to train harderthan you compete.
You need to use your dailytraining as building your armor.
(19:31):
Think about yourself as Ironman in the cave building the
mask.
You know that famous scenewhere he's hammering the mask.
You're in the cave when you'retraining and you're building
that armor so you can break free.
That's Tony Stark and that'syou.
You guys have something incommon, congratulations.
So think about that Build.
Build the armor and trainharder than you can you do when
(19:56):
you're competing, because if youtrain as hard as you can when
you're like before the race,before whatever comes up, that's
going to make it feel like it'seasy on race day.
Reflect on your failures.
It's number four and that'swhat I'm doing today.
That's why we have this podcast, this short little heavy hitter
.
But don't hide from the daysthat you gave in, because that's
(20:23):
just going to real like it's.
It's not going to allow you tolearn from them.
You need to study them, becausethose are the blueprints for
growth, those areas that youthink you may have lacked in
over the past couple of weeks orwhatever the timeline might be.
Double down on them, say I knowthat this is something that I
haven't been doing well at andsee if you can push it.
(20:44):
The last thing I would say iscommit to it before you start,
both your body and your mind.
If it's a running goal, thenthat means you're running as
much as you can.
You're training strategically,not as much as you can.
I take that back, but you'rerunning a lot and your mind is
being built and forged at thesame time, through pushing past
(21:06):
discomfort when it rubs yourshoulders and it's trying to get
you to stop.
You have to push past it, butit starts with commitment.
Decide that you will not quit.
If you're going to pursue hardthings, you have to be mentally
bought in.
You can't halfway chase hardgoals and expect those full
rewards.
You can't do it.
Can't halfway chase hard goalsand expect those full rewards.
(21:29):
You can't do it.
You can't show up unpreparedbecause preparation is great.
Training is is is crucial.
If, specifically for running,you have to train If you want to
be successful in your race,there are people out there who
will go and just you know, goafter a marathon without
training for it and they'll doit.
But if you want to see yourpotential, if you want to see
how great you can become, it'sgoing to require training.
(21:52):
And with that same physicaltraining, learn what you can do
to train your mind.
Study yourself, see when themoments come up in your training
where you want to quit and askyourself why is that happening?
Because if it is and if you canidentify it, you're making
leaps.
And so this podcast isn't, thisepisode isn't meant to make
anyone feel discouraged ornervous that challenges will
(22:14):
come up.
That's the nature of life.
Challenges are always there.
How are you going to respondwhen they come up?
For me today, I gave in Clearas day and that sucked.
That was a crappy feeling.
Gave in clear as day and thatsucked.
That was a crappy feeling, andI'm taking today's lesson and
I'm going to apply it to futureones so I don't have to feel
(22:34):
this again.
It's it's not a bad thing tohave stumbling blocks if you can
learn from them.
So I hope this helps.
I hope this gets you a littlemore amped up to to chase your
goals and and to prepare forthem.
When things go wrong becausethey always do Ask yourself what
(22:56):
you're going to do, to to showup for yourself and be better,
because you owe it to yourselfto do that.
And if you know anyone thatmight be going through something
similar, that might bestruggling on their own journey,
send this episode to them.
If it helped you at all, itmight help someone else.
But, as always, I appreciateyou guys for tuning in.
You guys are great, you're thereason I do this and, as always,
(23:21):
keep getting after it.
Thanks, guys.
My friends, welcome back to the Getting After it podcast.
As always, happy you're here.
It means a lot that you justdecided to sit down with your
friend Brett today and talkabout some things.
I have been having a tough day.
It's been an interesting oneNot tough as, like you know, I'm
in an existential crisis thingbut mentally it's been a hard
(00:22):
day and I'll go into why.
Crisis thing, but mentally it'sbeen a hard day and I'll go
into why.
But the whole point of thisepisode is to talk about the
importance of keeping the bodyand mind tied to the same goal.
Without the body, the goalscan't be done.
Without the mind, you might aswell not be in control.
(00:42):
They have to be tied together,they have to be intertwined in
there, whatever goal that you'redoing.
So, without further ado, let'sget after it.
Okay, why is Brett having ahard day?
Well, a couple reasons.
Reason number one my wife isnot here.
(01:03):
She is in Vegas taking a test.
And reason number two is theexact reason this podcast is
being recorded.
I was invited by my friendBraden, who is an absolute beast
.
He's a runner.
I met him when I ran the Ragnarrace with my company and he
just showed up, he was a friendof one of the runners that we
(01:24):
had my company and he justshowed up he was a friend of one
of the runners that we had andinstantly this dude was speaking
my language, shows up with thego one more hat, like all the
things.
He's just a beast and I'vewatched him over the years like
grow in his running skills and,uh, it's been cool to watch.
But anyways, he, he messaged meand he's like hey, my friend
Dylan, for his 31st birthday, isrunning 31 miles and this run
(01:48):
was at a park and it was aone-mile loop, so very, very
monotonous, like that is.
You can get pretty tired of aone-mile loop that you're going
to have to run 31 times, but,being me, I was like that's
exactly what I want to do, likeeverything sounds great there,
(02:09):
the challenge of pushing myself,the grind, the distance, the
suffering, all of that.
That's what I love, because inthose moments bonds are formed
and you learn a lot aboutyourself.
Bonds are formed and you learna lot about yourself.
And when I got to the, to therun this morning, uh, I woke up
(02:31):
at 5am, got there, the racestarted.
It wasn't a race.
The run starts at six.
And so I'm there and I meetthis dude for the first time.
Don't know him, his name'sDylan, dylan Hayes, um, or Dylan
Mays.
I met him today, so cut me someslack, but the guy's a beast.
Like the fact that this guywants to run 31 miles for his
31st birthday.
Again, speak in my language.
(02:53):
What's a better way tocelebrate than doing something
hard with your friends?
Because at the end of that,you're going to be more than
friends, you're going to bebrothers in arms or sisters in
arms.
There were a couple girls theretoo, and when I show up it was
rad.
So they had a, a pop-up tentlike one of those canopies.
(03:14):
Underneath the canopy they hadgels, they had fruit, they had
electrolytes, water, um,sunscreen, chafing stuff, cause
you do chafe at that distanceand they had this whole thing
set up and I was just like thatis rad, like this dude set up
this entire run, this 31 milerun for his friends to come out,
for them to, to suffer with himand do something difficult
(03:34):
altogether, again, speaking mylanguage, and I wasn't mentally
bought in.
I noticed that the first, thefirst thing I did when I woke up
is I noticed like this isdifferent than other races I've
prepped for or other runs thatI've prepped for.
Because, in my mind, this iswhere the ego comes into play
(03:55):
and this is going to be a hardepisode for me to record,
because in my mind, I am someonewho can show up and do a 50 K
race.
That's nothing right, or I liketo think that it's nothing.
That's very wrong.
And so I showed up and Istarted running and it felt
pretty good.
(04:15):
Um, but around mile seven I'vebeen having this issue with my
quad, where it'll like, seize upand it'll get.
It'll feel like it's deadweight and I'm I'm lugging this
sandbag through through wetconcrete.
That's what it feels like andbecause of that, like my running
form gets all messed up andit's all.
It just causes a bunch ofissues.
And around mile seven thatstarts picking up and it feels
(04:36):
like someone took a knife,jabbed it into my leg and just
left it there and twisted it acouple of times.
And so I'm fighting off thispain.
I'm like, whatever it's justthere, deal with it.
And as I'm going around, I keepthinking, oh man, I got a
marathon in two weeks.
Like is this gonna happen on mymarathon in two weeks?
Like maybe I need to take iteasy.
And so I'm running.
I'm like, whatever, get throughmile eight.
(04:57):
I'm like, yeah, still havingthose thoughts, I'm not gonna
listen to it.
But something happened, likemile nine.
I kept thinking about the racethat's coming up, the grandma's
marathon that I'm running withAllie on the 21st, and for some
reason my mind got the best ofme and it was like, hey, you
(05:19):
probably should take it easy,you should maybe just ease up a
little bit.
And so embarrassed to say this,but around mile 10 and a half,
I, I, I stopped the run and hehad a book there where people
could come uh, write their namedown and and how many miles they
did.
And I wrote brett rossel, 10and a half miles.
(05:39):
And then in parentheses I wrotea big DNF, did not finish.
That was hard and it might notseem like something that's a big
deal, or it might not seem likesomething that actually is hard
.
It's like, oh, brett'scomplaining he dropped out of a
31-mile race but still got 10.5miles in.
I know, I understand it soundssilly, but for me in my mind, I
(06:03):
was going to run those races butI hadn't committed.
I was going to run those miles,but I didn't commit to it.
And that's the point of whatwe're talking about today,
because if you remember metalking about the Vegas Marathon
, I kind of had that sameattitude show up, I was training
my brother and my cousin at thetime and I was running lots of
miles.
I ran a 50K earlier that year.
(06:24):
So I was like feeling goodabout myself and my progression
and I just thought I'd be ableto show up and do it.
And that wasn't the case either.
I had an asthma attack and thatscared me, so I dropped out.
It's happened twice now where Ithink that I'm a better runner
than I actually am and I goafter these goals that are maybe
(06:46):
a little bit too out there forme at the moment.
And by all means, I know I canrun a 50K race, but I wasn't
bought in.
I didn't believe that I wasgoing to finish this run today.
I thought I would just show upand get it done, and I hope that
makes sense, because you can't.
You can't have half a goalthere.
(07:07):
You can't have a body thatworks well and a mind that
decides to quit, because you canbe as strong as a lion, but if
your mind isn't there, you mightas well not even try and go
after the goal because you'regoing to drop out, you're going
to quit when it's when it startsto get hard.
And that's the point that Imissed.
I didn't visualize, when thingsgot hard, what I was going to do
to to combat those feelings, toget through those moments where
(07:30):
you know I, I start feelingsome pain, I start doubting
myself because guess what, onraces that happens.
You will feel pain.
You might doubt yourself.
If you've trained well enoughand if your mind is bought in as
well as it should be, maybethat won't happen to you the,
(07:50):
the mental doubt piece, but Ican guarantee you pain will come
.
Pain is something that is anold friend on a race, like when
your legs start tapping out.
You have some hardconversations with yourself and
maybe with your legs you say,hey, kicking into gears stupid
pieces of S, I'll, uh, censormyself there, but it was tough.
(08:14):
Because, going back to the, theexample and the story that I
told, I want to be known as arunner that can do that, but I'm
not there yet.
I will get there, but it'sgoing to take years and I feel
like I am a decent runner.
But there's always room forimprovement and it's a goal that
(08:38):
I'll always be chasing.
And so, yes, today sucked.
Today sucked that I'll alwaysbe chasing.
And so, yes, today sucked.
Today sucked that I had to stoprunning and I went to the gym
and ran another six milesbecause I felt like crap.
So total for today was 16 and ahalf miles, but I still feel
crappy about that because Idropped out of today's run.
(08:59):
Not as fun as a topic as I'dlike it to be, but it is what it
is and that's the point of whyI'm sharing this, because I want
you to see that on your ownjourney, there will be, there
will be roadblocks.
I talk about this all the time.
How are you going to handlethem when they show up?
So I wrote this big, longjournal entry today because I
(09:23):
was just thinking about, likeokay, well, what could I be
doing?
That's different.
And here's what I wrote.
I'll skip to the middle here.
I said here's the truth.
I keep circling around.
Resilience is not just physical.
I've built the engine, the legsare there, but if the mind
isn't locked in, the body won'tmatter.
The mind has to be the general,not the physical.
I've built the engine, the legsare there, but if the mind
isn't locked in, the body won'tmatter.
(09:43):
The mind has to be the general,not the passenger.
And I didn't have a plan forthe war today.
No visualization, no mentalrehearsal, no clear decision
made before we started.
I showed up physically, but notmentally.
I was hoping it'd work out.
That's not enough, not for thedistance, not for life.
You can't halfway chase hardthings and expect full rewards.
(10:05):
A strong body is a halfcommitment.
A strong mind makes it whole.
I need to get better atpreparing, at visualizing, at
accepting that suffering isn'tthe enemy, it's part of the path
.
Long distances are not justabout fitness, they're about
fire, and the fire's lit in themind.
I've been acting like I'malready the guy who can do that,
(10:25):
who can show up and run a 50koff instinct.
But I'm not there yet, Not evenclose, and pretending I am is a
fast track to stagnation.
To become the one who rises, theone who endures, I need a mind
that doesn't blink at pain, amind that smiles at the storm
and says you're exactly what Itrained for, because comfort,
(10:46):
comfort is a liar.
It whispers, take it easy, butit leaves you restless, half
lived and hollow.
Here's the truth, and I wrotethis to myself again.
This is a.
It's going to tell you a lotabout me.
Brett, you are made for morethe runner.
You are the runner who rosefrom the dead, rebuilt your own
discipline and is now forginginto the elite.
(11:08):
Don't let comfort claim yourcrown.
Don't trade potential for ease.
You've got work to do andthat's how I'm looking at this
experience, not as a pity memoment, not as a I didn't hit
the goal that I wanted to.
As a time for reflection, as atime to sit down with myself and
say where did I miss?
(11:29):
And it's very clear that todayI missed it in the mental
capacity.
Where your mind goes, your bodywill follow, but there is an
illusion of readiness.
Like I said, like I showed upphysically, but mentally I was
hoping it would work out.
Like I said, that's not how youwin, that's not how you do it.
(11:50):
Michael Jordan he practicedhours and hours in the gym, but
he also, in his spare time, Iassume, was practicing the shots
in his head, the moves on thecourt, what his opponents would
do, how he would combat thosemoves and what he was going to
do mentally in the game.
That is crucial for anyone'ssuccess.
(12:10):
Being mentally bought in meansthat you need to prepare your
mindset with the same vigor thatyou prepare your body, for it
separates the athlete from theamateur Today I showed up as an
amateur.
It separates the athlete fromthe amateur Today I showed up as
an amateur Separates the doersfrom the dreamers.
Marcus Aurelius wrote this quotethat I've said many times.
You have power over your mind,and not outside events.
(12:33):
Realize this and you will findstrength.
The goal doesn't care how fityou are, it cares how focused
you are.
And focus isn't a feeling, it'sa skill that we can hone in.
So if your mind isn't leadingthe drive, it's not leading the
initiative.
Your body will break.
(12:55):
People say that pain is theenemy.
I would say that it's not.
Confusion, is Doubt, isHesitation, is.
Your brain's job is to keep yousafe.
That's really what it's good atdoing.
It's to keep you safe.
Still thinks we're running fromtigers.
But what we face today, thefears that we have, they're
(13:15):
dressed up as discomfort and notnecessarily death.
And so, in my mind, yes, andnot necessarily death.
And so in my mind, yes, runninga 50K won't kill me.
But when I am running it, mymind says, hey, it might.
It might take you off.
It tells me to slow down, ittells me to quit.
It's trying to protect me, butthat safety is a lie.
(13:41):
Comfort does not satisfy, like Isaid it.
Like I said, it's a liar and itwhispers for you to take it
easy, but it leaves you restless, it leaves you half lived and
it leaves you feeling hollow.
Why do you think?
I decided to go run six milesafter I had this, this run this
morning.
It was rough and because Iwanted to prove that maybe I
(14:02):
could go and push myself alittle further.
And so that's what I did.
And you know it's it.
It did tell me hey, you, youstill have more to give.
And the whole time I was, I wasrunning that six miles, I was
like I wish I, just I wish Istayed.
And that is, that is the exactpath I never want to be on is
(14:23):
living a life of regret.
It's exactly how I feel today.
I feel like I'm regretting, notpushing past that pain, because
maybe, if I sat down for alittle bit and gunned out my leg
or whatever I could have doneto ease up the pain and get my
muscle feeling a little looser,maybe I could have done it In
fact, I know I could havebecause I've done it before in
(14:45):
much worse conditions but thebrain stopped me today, and I
hate to say that, but it is true.
And it made me realize thatresilience starts before the
race, because you can't becomeresilient during.
It's all built in the quiethours before, either in your
(15:06):
training or in the mentalpreparation Like we've been
talking about with visualization, you know, playing out
scenarios in your head.
That's important.
Your rehearsals and yourself-talk that you play in your
mind, uh, that's what you needto be focused on.
And you need to ask yourselfwhen the moment comes, have you
(15:27):
already seen it in your mind?
When the pain hits, have youalready trained for that
conversation with yourself?
When your brain says stop, doyou have a script of how you're
going to respond to it?
That's being mentally bought in.
It's intentional, it'srelentless, but it's very
quietly powerful.
(15:48):
Suffer the pain of discipline orsuffer the pain of regret.
And I'm facing the pain ofregret, guys.
It's not a good feeling, sodon't do it, don't give up,
don't quit.
It's crappy, it's not fun.
You don't want to live a lifewhere you get to the end of it
and you think of all the thingsyou could have done differently
(16:09):
that could have gotten you tothe place that you wish you
could have been.
That's a life of regret, and sothat's why I'm talking about.
You have to be mentally boughtand you have to believe that you
can do these things and youhave to believe that when, when
challenges arise, that you'remade for more and that you're
able to push through them,because we all are, we all can
push through, we all can endure.
It's just training the brain tobe able to do that.
(16:32):
And that might look like, hey,if you're working out and you're
struggling and you're doingcardio for 30 minutes, that's
what's on the schedule and youcan't wait for that 30 minute
mark, but when it comes, maybetry and go an extra five and
just see if you can push past it.
That's having the conversationwith discomfort in the moment,
and that's all in the training.
(16:53):
And you need to train for thesetimes, because they will arise,
where you doubt yourself, whereyou don't know if you can do
the thing that you set out to do, and you need to be ready for
those.
Prime your mind, get ready forit.
It's not about showing up andtrying to be tough.
(17:17):
It's about being trained.
It really is.
It's being trained to smile atthat discomfort.
It's being trained to keepgoing when that voice says to
quit.
It's being trained to lock inbefore the storm even begins.
And, like I said, I'd like tobe there.
I want to be there and I thinkI have some work that needs to
do.
But as for you, try and becomesomeone who doesn't necessarily
(17:40):
beg for mercy, who is pushingpast their own limitations that
they thought they had forthemselves and realize they're
made for more.
Show up prepared to the fight.
Don't be surprised by the pain.
Expect it, because it's goingto come.
Don't trade your potential forease.
(18:04):
That's a scary thing to do.
We all can fall into thatrather quickly.
And so what can you do?
Here's what I want you to doand sit down and think about
whatever goals in front of you.
These five points will help youat least make some kind of
progress towards them.
The first is visualize the painbefore whatever next challenge
(18:25):
arises.
Rehearse it in your mind.
Feel the pain ahead of time soit doesn't rattle you.
If you can do that, you'realready a step ahead of many
people.
Two is, I would say developmental cues like write phrases
you can repeat to yourself whensuffering hits.
And I was talking to my brotherabout this today, actually
because he ran up in themountains, um, and he was
(18:46):
telling me about this big oldhill that he had to run up.
And I told him.
When I'm training in themountains, I always tell myself
that the uphills are tough, butthe downhills are my reward for
it, because anytime you go up,guess what?
You have to come down.
That's a law we all have toabide by because of nature, and
the same goes for in themountains.
Usually, when you get up to ahill, there will be a down piece
(19:09):
.
Sometimes that hill keeps goingand going and going, but
eventually you will be goingdown.
All mountains have descendingsides.
So think about some phrasesthat you can tell yourself.
Three, I would say, is crucial.
And you need to train harderthan you compete.
You need to use your dailytraining as building your armor.
(19:31):
Think about yourself as Ironman in the cave building the
mask.
You know that famous scenewhere he's hammering the mask.
You're in the cave when you'retraining and you're building
that armor so you can break free.
That's Tony Stark and that'syou.
You guys have something incommon, congratulations.
So think about that Build.
Build the armor and trainharder than you can you do when
(19:56):
you're competing, because if youtrain as hard as you can when
you're like before the race,before whatever comes up, that's
going to make it feel like it'seasy on race day.
Reflect on your failures.
It's number four and that'swhat I'm doing today.
That's why we have this podcast, this short little heavy hitter
.
But don't hide from the daysthat you gave in, because that's
(20:23):
just going to real like it's.
It's not going to allow you tolearn from them.
You need to study them, becausethose are the blueprints for
growth, those areas that youthink you may have lacked in
over the past couple of weeks orwhatever the timeline might be.
Double down on them, say I knowthat this is something that I
haven't been doing well at andsee if you can push it.
(20:44):
The last thing I would say iscommit to it before you start,
both your body and your mind.
If it's a running goal, thenthat means you're running as
much as you can.
You're training strategically,not as much as you can.
I take that back, but you'rerunning a lot and your mind is
being built and forged at thesame time, through pushing past
(21:06):
discomfort when it rubs yourshoulders and it's trying to get
you to stop.
You have to push past it, butit starts with commitment.
Decide that you will not quit.
If you're going to pursue hardthings, you have to be mentally
bought in.
You can't halfway chase hardgoals and expect those full
rewards.
You can't do it.
Can't halfway chase hard goalsand expect those full rewards.
(21:29):
You can't do it.
You can't show up unpreparedbecause preparation is great.
Training is is is crucial.
If, specifically for running,you have to train If you want to
be successful in your race,there are people out there who
will go and just you know, goafter a marathon without
training for it and they'll doit.
But if you want to see yourpotential, if you want to see
how great you can become, it'sgoing to require training.
(21:52):
And with that same physicaltraining, learn what you can do
to train your mind.
Study yourself, see when themoments come up in your training
where you want to quit and askyourself why is that happening?
Because if it is and if you canidentify it, you're making
leaps.
And so this podcast isn't, thisepisode isn't meant to make
anyone feel discouraged ornervous that challenges will
(22:14):
come up.
That's the nature of life.
Challenges are always there.
How are you going to respondwhen they come up?
For me today, I gave in Clearas day and that sucked.
That was a crappy feeling.
Gave in clear as day and thatsucked.
That was a crappy feeling, andI'm taking today's lesson and
I'm going to apply it to futureones so I don't have to feel
(22:34):
this again.
It's it's not a bad thing tohave stumbling blocks if you can
learn from them.
So I hope this helps.
I hope this gets you a littlemore amped up to to chase your
goals and and to prepare forthem.
When things go wrong becausethey always do Ask yourself what
(22:56):
you're going to do, to to showup for yourself and be better,
because you owe it to yourselfto do that.
And if you know anyone thatmight be going through something
similar, that might bestruggling on their own journey,
send this episode to them.
If it helped you at all, itmight help someone else.
But, as always, I appreciateyou guys for tuning in.
You guys are great, you're thereason I do this and, as always,
(23:21):
keep getting after it.
Thanks, guys.
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