What a treadmill has to do with your success.
Would you guess that the length of time you can endure running on a treadmill at full speed correlates to how much success you’ll have in other aspects of life? Probably not. But Harvard researchers decided to test just that — and the results were surprising. The men who stayed on the treadmill longer had better physical health and were more gritty. When contacted years later, they had achieved greater success in many areas of their lives — their marriages, work and career advancement, and overall mental health. They put in more effort (both on the treadmill and in their lives in general), and as Angela Duckworth says, “when it comes to how we fare in the marathon of life, effort counts tremendously” (Grit, 47).
How long do you think you would stay on the treadmill? Maybe you don’t have one to try it out and see, but what I’ve done since I read about this experiment is notice what could count as a “treadmill” in my life and gauge how I perform in that task. I call the “treadmills of life” the painful things we want to give up on, uncomfortable situations, and moments we have to leave our comfort zone.
On Tuesday, my sister and I were lifting weights, and I got to a point where I felt that my muscles simply would not let me continue. They were tight and burning, and I wanted badly to drop my weights and let up for a little. But then it came to me: this was my treadmill test. So I persevered. I didn’t put down the weights or give up like I usually would have. That same stamina and endurance transferred to my schoolwork that night and working on my small business yesterday.
The treadmill test is pretty powerful, and it’s brought some insight into my life. I’ve realized that my perseverance is lacking. However, persistence is thankfully a skill you can control and strengthen. To build endurance and commitment, you need to practice endurance and commitment every day. And that’s the habit I’ve decided to make: choose something to be my treadmill test every day and stay on that treadmill as long as I can.
