It's A Sprint Not A Marathon
Seize the opportunity NOW
“You have plenty of time”
“Take it slow”
“It’s a marathon not a sprint”
Nope.
You’re being lied to. You have less time than you think.
Time is the most valuable resource on the planet, and yet most take it for granted. Every successful person constantly talks about how much they value their time.
We go about each day as if things will just work out for us tomorrow somehow. As if tomorrow was guaranteed at all…
We are blessed with opportunities in life and assume they are abundant and plentiful. This assumption then kills our sense of urgency.
An opportunity that falls into your lap will get up and walk away just as quickly. Most will not realize this until it is too late.
I have accomplished far more when I KNOW time is NOT on my side. When the pressure is on, when I have to perform or else the clock will run out. That’s when I have performed my best.
I’m not the only one who has experienced this, I’m sure you have too. It’s actually a well-studied phenomenon called Parkinson’s Law.
Parkinson’s Law is more about productivity than anything. In this case, speed is the name of the game. Those who are willing to act with urgency always seem to accomplish more. Short deadlines makes for more output.
But I want to look at this principle through a different perspective.
Sometimes there’s situations in life where you don’t get to set the deadlines. Some things are out of your hands. We grow old, windows of opportunity close, and we move on to the next chapter of life.
There’s two things you can do when the world decides the timeline for you:
Forget or ignore the fact that your window of opportunity is limited and just slowly run out the clock until the end.
Acknowledge that your time is limited and use that added pressure as fuel to make the most of your opportunity.
Here’s a quick story about how I learned to embrace the pressure of time:
Towards the end of my last college baseball season, in the spring of 2025, I was enjoying more success than I ever had in college baseball by far.
But I could sense that the end was near.
This was long before I signed with the Phillies, and at that point I was still just a kid with a dream, longing for a chance. I had zero idea what my professional baseball chances looked like post college.
So, with the end of the season approaching, each game had massive playoff implications. I started to think about what the future would look like.
If the season ends, then my window of semi-guaranteed opportunities has closed. Everything from then on would be left up to chance.
So I started walking onto the field thinking to myself:
“If I do not win, it’s over.”
Sounds dramatic, but it worked. I pitched some of my best games of the year down the stretch.
Pressure makes diamonds they say. Pressure turned me into a battle-hardened weapon.
Realizing the power of pressure, I carried that same mentality with me all summer to the next opportunity, and I continued to win. Reinforcing this idea more and more, week after week.
Even though my path to professional baseball has been long, in many ways I am grateful for it all because this is one of the many incredible lessons I learned along the way.
Now that I’ve gotten my opportunity with the Phillies it’s a whole different level of competition. I’m ready to go all in with sense or urgency. Work my way towards the to the top as fast as possible.
It’s a sprint, remember?
The Takeaway:
“It’s a sprint, not a marathon.”
What if everything you ever wanted was a up for grabs, few blocks down the street. But only for a moment. You have to go catch it before it’s too late. Before it’s gone.
No aimless stretching, no leisurely jog, you’re just gone.
You’re sprinting.
Full effort. Maximum output. No thinking, just moving. Making massive leaps with every stride.
If you know that everything is temporary, you know you have to act with urgency. The pressure to act brings action.
Embrace that opportunities in life are temporary. That nothing is guaranteed. Take no day for granted. It can be scary at first, but this fear is why people ignore reality in the first place. Once reality is no longer scary, you are in the driver’s seat.
Pressure and urgency, coupled with focus and confidence will give you the power to achieve so much that people might even start to call you lucky…
At the very least, if things don’t work out how you want, you can walk away knowing you gave it your all and made the most of the opportunity.
- MT