The Pursuit of Excellence: The Uncommon Behaviors of the World's Most Productive Achievers

by Ryan Hawk

I start with a roughly one-mile run around the loop of the park. Following that, I go onto the grassy field and run a series of 110-yard sprints. Those sprints mirror the conditioning test that we did while I was at Ohio University. Finally, I finish by walking five miles around the neighborhoods near my home. I often see the same people out there who have their own routines (typically walking the loop around the park). Most weeks for about six months, I would see an older woman walking with her husband. We would nod to each other, say “Good morning,” and go about our business. One day, this woman walked up to me as I was cooling down from my sprints and asked, “Why do you run before you walk? Are there health benefits to it?” I could tell that she was genuinely curious. Without thinking and still out of breath from the sprints, I said, “I just try to do the hard stuff first.” After I had a moment to catch my breath and think about the interaction, I considered other areas of my life in which I “like to do the hard stuff first” and wondered why I instinctively responded to this woman like that. I realized that I love the feeling of accomplishing a hard task immediately upon waking up.