Vicki Brentin, Debbie Goldberg, and Jack Laurenzo spoke to students of the Life Academy, three other Challenger classes as well as students from the Apprentice campus.
All from different backgrounds, industries, and even goals, the Houston marathon brought these three individuals together. The act of running had little to do with the reason for the run, and even less to do with their desire to compete with others. Their motivation was personal, their drive internal, and their passion to succeed more about winning for themselves than for the glory of winning over others.
Vicki gave up the life of a lawyer to concentrate her efforts on herself, her family, and her community. She is tireless volunteer expanding programs for health care, micro enterprise for women in the East End of Houston, and many other community programs. She has completed small and large marathons and brings the keys to success through to all of her work. But success is more than the day of the run or even the day before. Vicki illustrated the preparation through the meals that each of the runners had for the morning breakfast of the marathon. It wasn’t really as important as the meal the day before the run and the day before that. “You must feed on positive thoughts. You must prepare from the moment that you set the goal as if the goal is only a moment away. Preparation, exercise, and continued focus combined with action will point you to ultimate success.
Debbie shared that her motivation actually came from others. She wanted to learn from the history of defeats as well as successes that came before her. She termed her motivation as ‘group motivation’ because it was through the personal experiences of the group that the individual runners learned to compete. “If it hurts, how can I learn to get through it to the other side of the hurt.” By learning how others traveled a similar path. Her commitment to learn from others combined with her philosophy to ‘enjoy the journey’ provides a base for success.
How do you do something SO BIG that it seems impossible? Jack Laurenzo spoke about the incredible thought of trying to run in the marathon. Not only did he need to get fit physically, he needed to get fit mentally. His determination led to his success as he took Debbie’s advice to take small steps and “chunk it”. Figure out the piece of the goal that you can accomplish and take that step, then figure out the next goal, and conquer it, then keep on until eventually you have conquered the goal that originally looked impossible!
Jack was determined to ‘do the best I could with what I had’ so he surrounded himself with others that would support and encourage him. Although the work was difficult and the goal of completing the marathon was tougher as the day drew to a close, Jack persevered. At the end of the race, even though he saw no one else at the finish line, he had an intense sense of accomplishment and a deep belief that “he (I) was doing what he (I) was supposed to be doing”. As intense as these feelings were, Jack was overwhelmed with another even deeper and stronger emotion when he saw the last ‘checker’ come into the cold from her car to congratulate him on his accomplishment of finishing the race. He related that it would have been easy for her to go home hours before as the last of the racers came in to cross the finish line. But it was her dedication and unselfishness that created the critical lesson for Jack that day. “It was her unselfishness of another person that gave of themselves to give to others”.
Debbie Goldberg, founder of Houston Fit, has also created a new non-profit that will help educate students about achieving goals through fitness. Through her visit to The Monarch School , Debbie has committed to working with students at both campuses to improve physical as well as mental fitness so that we might all be “Fit for the Challenges” ahead!
