On September 25th, 2022, 8:21pm, I crossed the finish line of the US Series of the Chattanooga, TN Ironman. As my feet finally stopped after 12 hours and 21 minutes of swimming, riding the bike and running, I heard the speaker said “Anthony Perdrix, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!”. I could feel so many emotions in my body, the crowd was cheering the athletes, this long journey was finally over and it was now time to celebrate.
This journey started 3 years ago: laying in the bed, I knew I was overweight, that I wasn’t treating my body the way I should have, I had bad physical habits, I was just not using the physical potential I knew was in me. I suddenly looked at my wife and I told her: “I am going to be a runner”. She smiled, knowing that when I commit to something, there isn’t any come back, and said “ok, go for it”.
I started to practice running, increasing progressively my pace, my distances. I then became a member of a running club, participated to my first races, realizing how much work was still in front of me.
I increased so much the distances that 1 year later, I was part of an ultra-marathon club, running trails for distances above a marathon. To make more progress, I started to join the local YMCA and swim there, to improve my core. As I could start to notice my improvements swimming, a good friend at the pool looked at me and said “You should try triathlon”. I took his words for it, bought a bike and started to ride it.
My first triathlon race was one year ago, I enjoyed the diversity of the 3 sports combined. Just like running, I kept increasing the distance of my races until reaching the ultimate triathlon: the Ironman: 144 miles. 2.4 miles swimming, 116 miles riding the bike and 23.2 miles running.
It has been a 3 years journey and along the way, I have learned 6 lessons that are especially true in the business world:
Lesson #1: Motivation doesn’t last – Discipline does
Motivation is doing the things you need to do, when you feel like it. The issue is you don’t always like feeling doing it. Motivation comes and goes. I am a pretty positive guy, upbeat and full of energy. Nevertheless, there are so many times I don’t feel like going for a run. It is early in the morning, it is dark and cold outside, I just don’t want to go, and my mind finds all the excuses possible for not going.
On the other hand, Discipline is doing the things you need to do, no matter how you feel about it. I have discovered that I need to replace Motivation by Discipline. How did I do it? By implementing new habits, making them small, but repeating them consistently. I made sure I was going for a run every morning, the distance didn’t matter. Some mornings were great, some morning sucked. Some mornings, I ran for 45’, some morning I ran for 10’. It didn’t matter, I developed the habit of being a runner. No matter what. Discipline beats Motivation every time.
Lesson #2: Control your mind and you control everything
Working out 12 hours in a row, covering 144 miles seems impossible for many. But during my race, I realized that if I could conquer my mind, I was going to cross the finish line. Before the race, I told my good friend: “I am going to finish this Ironman or I will be laying in a ditch, dead”. It seems excessive but I truly believed it. I had made a decision and I was going to stick to it: “It doesn’t matter how much pain my body is going to endure today, I am going to finish this race”. The mind wants comfort. The mind doesn’t like to be pushed. So, as part of my practice during the months prior to the race, I work on my body but also on my mind. I learned to not give up when your entire body is screaming that you should stop, I learned to go for “1 more” when I was done with my workout, I learned to feel the physical pain, look at it, and continue anyway, I learned to calm myself when I was anxious, I learned to look at something that felt impossible and convinced myself that it is possible even if I had no idea how to do it. I learned to set impossible goals and just put all my trust in the process knowing that the process will get me at some point to the goal. A man who can control his mind is unstoppable.
Lesson #3: Choose carefully your environment and your friends. They will support you or block you
For the big majority of my triathlon races, I have had my wife and wonderful friends by my side. They went to the races just to support me, to show me they believed in me. During these races, their support has made a huge difference. The emotional toll can be hard. Knowing they are here, by your side, can make the difference between quitting or keeping going. Don’t expect everything will go smooth. That’s not life. Your business won’t go smoothly. You will face major obstacles. You will need the right people and the right environment to help you. Choose them carefully.
Lesson #4: Trust the process
I became an Ironman way before I crossed the finish line, even before I jumped in the Tennessee river at the start of the race. I became an Ironman somewhere during my practices. When I finally fully implemented a process for my workout, for my nutrition, for my stretching,….and just followed it again and again. The process is the real target, not the final destination. Many people just focus on their goals, get frustrated when they don’t reach them and then give up. If you embrace the process, focus on it, there is nothing than can stop you.
Lesson #5: Get good at the art of setting goals
My big, stretched long term goal was to become an Ironman. Based on that goal, I set some intermediate goals that cascaded from each other. The Ironman goal led me to set up a goal of performing at 3 Half-Ironman, which led me to set up a goal of performing at my first triathlon,…and so on and so on. I have broken down a goal that seems impossible into smaller goals that were looking possible. As I progressively reached these progressive goals, the long term impossible goal became more and more possible in my mind.
Lesson #6: Nothing beats action, not even wonderful ideas
Reading books, listening to podcasts, discussing with others about strategies are all good, bring useful tools, tips and help for a morale standpoint. BUT, I became an Ironman when I was running on the trails, when I was swimming in the lakes, when I was riding the bike on crazy highways. People focus too much on ideas, not enough on actions. The best business idea doesn’t mean anything if it is not followed by consistent, repeat, high volume actions.
6 business lessons learned from my 1st ironman
On September 25th, 2022, 8:21pm, I crossed the finish line of the US Series of the Chattanooga, TN Ironman. As my feet finally stopped after 12 hours and 21 minutes of swimming, riding the bike and running, I heard the speaker said “Anthony Perdrix, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!”. I could feel so many emotions in my body, the crowd was cheering the athletes, this long journey was finally over and it was now time to celebrate.
This journey started 3 years ago: laying in the bed, I knew I was overweight, that I wasn’t treating my body the way I should have, I had bad physical habits, I was just not using the physical potential I knew was in me. I suddenly looked at my wife and I told her: “I am going to be a runner”. She smiled, knowing that when I commit to something, there isn’t any come back, and said “ok, go for it”.
I started to practice running, increasing progressively my pace, my distances. I then became a member of a running club, participated to my first races, realizing how much work was still in front of me.
I increased so much the distances that 1 year later, I was part of an ultra-marathon club, running trails for distances above a marathon. To make more progress, I started to join the local YMCA and swim there, to improve my core. As I could start to notice my improvements swimming, a good friend at the pool looked at me and said “You should try triathlon”. I took his words for it, bought a bike and started to ride it.
My first triathlon race was one year ago, I enjoyed the diversity of the 3 sports combined. Just like running, I kept increasing the distance of my races until reaching the ultimate triathlon: the Ironman: 144 miles. 2.4 miles swimming, 116 miles riding the bike and 23.2 miles running.
It has been a 3 years journey and along the way, I have learned 6 lessons that are especially true in the business world:
Lesson #1: Motivation doesn’t last – Discipline does
Motivation is doing the things you need to do, when you feel like it. The issue is you don’t always like feeling doing it. Motivation comes and goes. I am a pretty positive guy, upbeat and full of energy. Nevertheless, there are so many times I don’t feel like going for a run. It is early in the morning, it is dark and cold outside, I just don’t want to go, and my mind finds all the excuses possible for not going.
On the other hand, Discipline is doing the things you need to do, no matter how you feel about it. I have discovered that I need to replace Motivation by Discipline. How did I do it? By implementing new habits, making them small, but repeating them consistently. I made sure I was going for a run every morning, the distance didn’t matter. Some mornings were great, some morning sucked. Some mornings, I ran for 45’, some morning I ran for 10’. It didn’t matter, I developed the habit of being a runner. No matter what. Discipline beats Motivation every time.
Lesson #2: Control your mind and you control everything
Working out 12 hours in a row, covering 144 miles seems impossible for many. But during my race, I realized that if I could conquer my mind, I was going to cross the finish line. Before the race, I told my good friend: “I am going to finish this Ironman or I will be laying in a ditch, dead”. It seems excessive but I truly believed it. I had made a decision and I was going to stick to it: “It doesn’t matter how much pain my body is going to endure today, I am going to finish this race”. The mind wants comfort. The mind doesn’t like to be pushed. So, as part of my practice during the months prior to the race, I work on my body but also on my mind. I learned to not give up when your entire body is screaming that you should stop, I learned to go for “1 more” when I was done with my workout, I learned to feel the physical pain, look at it, and continue anyway, I learned to calm myself when I was anxious, I learned to look at something that felt impossible and convinced myself that it is possible even if I had no idea how to do it. I learned to set impossible goals and just put all my trust in the process knowing that the process will get me at some point to the goal. A man who can control his mind is unstoppable.
Lesson #3: Choose carefully your environment and your friends. They will support you or block you
For the big majority of my triathlon races, I have had my wife and wonderful friends by my side. They went to the races just to support me, to show me they believed in me. During these races, their support has made a huge difference. The emotional toll can be hard. Knowing they are here, by your side, can make the difference between quitting or keeping going. Don’t expect everything will go smooth. That’s not life. Your business won’t go smoothly. You will face major obstacles. You will need the right people and the right environment to help you. Choose them carefully.
Lesson #4: Trust the process
I became an Ironman way before I crossed the finish line, even before I jumped in the Tennessee river at the start of the race. I became an Ironman somewhere during my practices. When I finally fully implemented a process for my workout, for my nutrition, for my stretching,….and just followed it again and again. The process is the real target, not the final destination. Many people just focus on their goals, get frustrated when they don’t reach them and then give up. If you embrace the process, focus on it, there is nothing than can stop you.
Lesson #5: Get good at the art of setting goals
My big, stretched long term goal was to become an Ironman. Based on that goal, I set some intermediate goals that cascaded from each other. The Ironman goal led me to set up a goal of performing at 3 Half-Ironman, which led me to set up a goal of performing at my first triathlon,…and so on and so on. I have broken down a goal that seems impossible into smaller goals that were looking possible. As I progressively reached these progressive goals, the long term impossible goal became more and more possible in my mind.
Lesson #6: Nothing beats action, not even wonderful ideas
Reading books, listening to podcasts, discussing with others about strategies are all good, bring useful tools, tips and help for a morale standpoint. BUT, I became an Ironman when I was running on the trails, when I was swimming in the lakes, when I was riding the bike on crazy highways. People focus too much on ideas, not enough on actions. The best business idea doesn’t mean anything if it is not followed by consistent, repeat, high volume actions.
