Who are you becoming?

I first heard of Rich Roll back in 2013, when I read his book Finding Ultra, which is his amazing story of battling alcoholism and becoming a wildly accomplished endurance athlete, completing 5 Iron Man length triathlons on 5 Hawaiian islands over 7 days (I think he originally tried for 5 days, but ended up finishing in 7).

I recently listened to him on Tim Ferris's podcast and I was brought back to when I was marathon and triathlon training. In the end, I never got that triathlon under my belt.

I was inspired once again to hear his story. When I first read his book, I don't think his age registered with me, but it's amazing to see that he did not hit his athletic peak until he was 43 years old:

At the time, I was 32 years old. I am now 40 and I'm definitely feeling a step slower. Rich definitely gives me hope to do better.

There were so many great takeaways from the podcast, but I think the best one was about 49 minutes into the podcast, with the quote:

"Mood follows action."

How many times do we fall into the trap of wanting our mood to come before action? I can't count the number of times I've missed a workout because I didn't feel like putting in the work at that given time. What's funny is that I almost always feel great after a workout and am thankful that I did.

At the end of the podcast, Tim asks Rich what message he would put on a billboard, and Rich answers with "Who are you becoming?" I love this question because there is no wrong time to ask it. We can always ask this of ourselves and recalibrate.