How to Increase Your Stamina for Reaching Long-Term Goals

The question I’ve been pondering lately is: How can you continue to increase your stamina in order to reach your long-term goals?

Right now, there’s a push back on hustle culture — and I can see why. Yes, achieving your goals is going to take hard work, but what about taking time for yourself? Some see it as a waste of time, or even as laziness. However, I think that when we shift our focus on long-term goals as a MARATHON — not a sprint, it’s easy to see that rest, planning, fuel, and self care are essential to accomplishing a long-term goal.

No runner starts off a marathon by pushing themselves as hard as they possibly can in the first part of it. They would burn out so fast. Instead, they pace themselves. We can take these same principles and apply them to achieving any long-term goal.

What you can do:

GET ENOUGH SLEEP:

It sounds counterproductive at first, but take a moment to think about a day where you did not get enough sleep. How did you feel? How did you function? Issues associated with sleep deprivation include high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, depression, obesity, reduced immune system function, and even a lower sex drive.

You can have all the talent and charisma in the world, but if you’re sleep deprived, you won’t perform your best. But more importantly, you won’t have the necessary energy you’ll need to keep going.

TAKE BREAKS:

Also sounds counterproductive at first but studies have shown that taking a break from work increases focus when returning to the task, thereby improving productivity. This is the reason so many people, including myself, use the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is a system where you work on a task for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break, and repeat.

As I said before, long-term goals are going to require you to pace yourself. Forcing yourself to sit down and study for hours and hours, without a break, will leave you tired, drained, and burned out. With those breaks to rest and recharge yourself, it’s easier to keep going, and to be able to check in with yourself, your energy, and your ultimate goal and purpose.

STAY HYDRATED:

This one you might think only applies to the actual marathoner, but it applies to the metaphorical marathon as well.

Here’s a list of how drinking enough water can help you:

•Boosts energy
•Helps in weight loss
•Flushes out toxins
•Helps with nutrient absorption
•Regulates body temperature
•Improves skin complexion
•Delivers oxygen throughout the body
•Helps create saliva
•Helps maximize physical performance
•Flushes body waste
•Increases energy
•Maintains regularity
•Aids in cognitive function
•Protects your tissues, spinal cord, and joints
•Relieves fatigue
•Lubricates your joints
•Improves mood
•Helps fight off illness
•Maintains blood pressure
•Prevents dehydration (duh)

REMEMBER YOU WHY:

When you can remember the reason you’re doing a task — especially one that sucks, especially one that doesn’t immediately yield results — it makes it easier to get through those shitty parts. Why do you deserve your goal? Why you? When you can answer questions like this, and understand the foundation of your WHY, you’ll be able to get through those struggles without quitting. Because you’ve taken the time to continuously assure yourself that you ARE worth it.

How you start is important, but it is how you finish that counts. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter. — B.C. Forbes