Ignite Your Finisher Mentality to Achieve Your Most Challenging Goals

Last summer, I created an opportunity to coach a first-time marathon runner to generate a finisher mentality for the New York City Marathon. During three months of coaching with speaker/author Margie Warrell, I conceived a new motivational concept–an ignition chant–to ignite her finisher mentality.

An ignition chant is a brief statement that communicates the unique value of finishing a difficult task or a long-term project.

Margie Warrell was in her 50s and had never run a marathon. In addition, she had taken on the responsibilities of a new leadership role with a major consulting firm. She was flying to speaking engagements. Her longest training runs were only 10-12 miles. No way will she run 26.2 miles!

The major issue for our coaching was—How will Margie sustain her motivation to finish when her body is fatigued during the final miles of her marathon?

When I asked Margie Warrell why she accepted my offer for complimentary coaching, she answered, “You push the bounds.” She had perfect words to describe my finisher mentality. Margie knew I was a medal-winning pentathlete in masters track & field.

Pentathletes must generate a finisher mentality to focus on the proper movements for discus, javelin, long jump, 200-meter dash, and 1500-meter run. In 5 hours of competition, I repeat my ignition chant, “5 hours of discomfort are worth a lifetime of fulfillment.” Fulfillment comes from expending my absolute best effort while performing two of my core identities—”competitive athlete” and “comfort zone demolition expert.”

I got fired up to coach Margie Warrell when I read about her motivation for running the New York City Marathon on LinkedIn. She was inspired by her brother, Frank, who suffered spinal injury in a motorcycle accident that left him with paraplegia and confined to a wheelchair. At the time of his injury, Frank told Margie “There may be a thousand things I can’t do anymore. but there are still 5,000 things I can do. And I intend to do them all.” This mindset is what enabled him to fly 10,000 miles from Australia to visit Margie in Virginia, something even able-bodied people are often too timid to do! Frank often draws on this ignition chant to rise to serious challenges in his physical movement.

In our coaching, Margie Warrell conceived a set of ignition chants to concentrate on whenever her body feels exhausted during the marathon:

‘I will take the steps that Frank cannot take, honoring his courage and encouraging everyone whose mindset keeps them stuck in a mental wheelchair.”

“I have faith in my grit on marathon day. I will keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter what!”

“I will defy the label ‘bumblefoot’ that my Dad gave me as a kid and make my five-year-old self so proud!”

Whenever Margie had the flickering impulse to drop out of the race, she focused her attention on these ignition chants to restore her desire to run to the finish line.

In debriefing the race with me, Margie summarized her marathon finisher mentality:

“I think probably the biggest key was simply embracing the pain/discomfort/exertion for what it was—a sign that I was pushing myself in a way I never had before and continually reminding myself that I can do hard things and that I will be very proud for the rest of my life that I ran this marathon.”

Are you seeing the life-altering value of developing the courage to be a finisher?

Every moment of discomfort offers the opportunity for a lifetime of glorious breakthroughs. Be brave to demolish comfort zones, and you gain access to your absolute best effort.