What do a scribbled weekly list, a Thursday night football game with friends from college and the future of your career have in common? Everything.

No, this isn’t the story of how skipping one evening of a few too many cheap beers led to the opportunity of a lifetime. Instead it is a short and sweet gut check on the first steps to understanding how to enter the mindset of what I label Strategic Sacrifice.

On this particular week, I scribbled out a list of goals I wanted to achieve in the next seven days. Not a to-do list (that was on the previous page) but a short callout of things I wanted to frame my week by focusing on. It sat in a notebook on my desk where I could see it every morning.

On the page were things like not spending out-of-pocket money on Starbucks and running a total of 10 miles. At the top of the list was a quick bullet point that read “no weekday alcohol”.

There was no particular reason it was added other than my desire to limit the indulgences in my day-to-day

Fast forward to Thursday Night Football. I stopped by a friend’s apartment to plan for a wedding we were both attending over the weekend. A couple of our pals were also there enjoying some Natural Lights and more were on the way (both in relation to buddies and brews).

Cue the peer pressure: “Run next door and grab a six-pack!”, “You know you’ll want to in an hour so just start now", and “I don’t understand how this is even a question?”.

That last one rang true. Why is this even a question? Sneaking in a few drinks on one Thursday night would not make or break my diet or running preparation. I had an easy plan for where to stay for the night so the burden of a Lyft or designated driver wasn’t an issue. It had been a long week and I dare say deserved an indulgence.

PAUSE.

There is a reason I use the word “strategic sacrifice”. The sacrifice here is likely clear: a few (maybe more than a few) Natty Lights with the crew. However, this wasn’t about skipping the booze just to make a point. The strategic part? The subtle reminder of the value in delivering on a goal, no matter how trivial in may seem.

The issue boiled down to making a small sacrifice to unlock the potential that comes with achieving something you committed to complete. This somewhat magical potential became increasingly obvious to me when I began my #ChaseRUNS campaign and ran almost 650 consecutive days to raise funds and awareness for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It gave me both the confidence and the power to tackle things I never thought possible. I knew I could set lofty ambitions and achieve them without taking shortcuts. Heck, if you can keep running 2.1 miles even while in cowboy boots thru downtown Nashville, surely you can avoid giving your money to Starbucks for a week, right?

Time and time again I was nudged to just skip a day, cut my 2.1 miles short or run double the next day. However, I knew that even cutting a 1/10th of a mile off my commitment would be not only cheating myself but cheating the integrity of the important message I was sharing about the mission at St. Jude to find cures ands save children, both in my hometown and across the world.

It taught me that when you follow thru on a commitment, no matter whether it’s honoring a 1/10th of a mile, an extra pound of weights or even skipping one night of Natural Light, it unlocks the potential to achieve the seemingly impossible.

One night with friends won’t make or break your career but one broken goal can set off a chain reaction of lowering the bar for your potential. The next time you are faced with a choice that involves sacrificing something consider both the “why” behind your reason to take on the temporarily discomfort and more important the strategy it is setting you up to succeed with.

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