Keep Your Eyes On the Prize

One of my newest addictions is running in local races. Over the past 18 months, I’ve participated in a handful of 5ks and a 4-mile trail run, keeping in shape in between with a 3- or 4-mile run once or twice a week.

Let me be clear: I’m a writer, not a runner, so I’m not setting any time records here. I simply challenge myself to complete a run and I do whatever it takes to get to the finish line.

When I first started running, I’d run-walk a 5k, figuring I was doing well to get past the first mile at a run. But after awhile, “just good enough” wasn’t good enough anymore. I challenged myself to keep running. Imagine a 40-something female with a look of intense concentration on her face. Onlookers likely thought, “Wow! She’s focused!” Actually, I heard Ellen DeGeneres’ voice as the Dory fish from “Finding Nemo” playing in my head: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”

I signed up for my first Peachtree Road Race in 2010. For those of you not from around these parts, it’s only the biggest 10k in the country, with 55,000 runners and three times that in spectators. For the seeded runners, it’s a race; for the rest of us, it’s Atlanta’s version of Mardi Gras – a great big party, complete with costumes and beer. What a rush!

I prepared myself by running more than six miles a few times over the last few weeks, so I knew I could complete the course. The scary parts were “Cardiac Hill” and the subsequent hills no one tells you about until you’re running them… But at the end there’s a T-shirt. And not just any T-shirt: a Peachtree Road Race T-shirt! I had to keep going.

Throughout the course, I set “mini-goals” for myself: “Make it to the first mile marker,” “Get to the next water checkpoint,” “Pass Marilyn Monroe one more time,” and so on. I paced myself and ran up Cardiac Hill (although “run” is a relative term here – suffice it to say, I wasn’t “walking”). As I turned onto 10th Street for the final stretch, my goals were a little different: “Smile for the camera,” “Don’t let the guy in the BP shirt beat you to the finish line,” and so on.

What does all of this have to do with marketing, you ask? It’s all about the mini-goals. Know what you want and keep striving for it until you reach it.

That first year in business is like the first mile in a 10k: “Just make it to the first month,” “Attend just one more networking meeting,” “Finish that last revision.”

eIRIS Marketing just celebrated its first anniversary of writing copy for clients and earning the reputation as a high-quality professional writing service, and for that I thank all of you who have worked with us and referred us to your friends and clients. As we start Year Two, I promise to continue to provide the written content you and your business deserve – smiling as I write your final revision!

-Beth

Tags: marketing, success, writing