As Long As I’m Moving…
May 20, 2009
A good quick read is Lance Armstrong’s autobiography, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, where he talks about his battle with cancer, his subsequent return to competitive cycling, and his victory in the Tour De France – the first of what would turn out to be an unprecedented seven consecutive victories.
One passage in particular recounts Lance riding his bike while in great pain from the cancer treatments. When people asked him why he was doing such a thing, he replied, “As long as I’m moving, I’m living.”
In a somewhat different but definitely related story, I learned about a research study where volunteers were placed into one of five different groups based on their levels of fitness and activity with “couch potatoes” on one end, and world-class Olympic athletes at the other end.
They were all evaluated, with comparisons made between their chronological age and their “physical” age, based on a variety of lifestyle activities and medical tests. The objective was to predict expected lifespan based on these factors.
The results were interesting: the single biggest increase predicted life span was between the first group – the people who did no exercise at all – and the second group that did minimal exercise like walking for ten minutes a day. The implication being that any activity is better than no activity.
And this really gets us to the heart of the issue. Because so many people are absolutely paralyzed by fear and uncertainty that they’re doing absolutely nothing to help grow or at least reposition their businesses to be stronger and in a better position to compete when the economy ultimately begins its slow road to recovery.
You hear things like, “I’m just going to sit out this economy.” Yeah, good luck with that! You can’t just wait it out like parking under an overpass during a bad rainstorm; you have to develop alternate plans.
You have to become a student of business and marketing. You have to implement. You have to take massive action when others are sitting in the corner, contemplating the universe with “a deer-in-the-headlights” looks in their eyes.
Like Lance said, “As long as I’m moving…I’m living.” The same thing could be said for you and your business: if you’re moving, you’re living. Don’t let yourself become a victim of the economy: take action when others are content to be spectators; be bold when others are timid; and above all, don’t be a “marketing couch potato.”
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