QT: The Key to Your Success is What Goes on Beneath the Surface

You know I love me some social media!

These days, Instagram is probably my platform of choice with Twitter still a solid second.

And as much as I’m not the biggest fan of the Book of Faces, I still check in there quite frequently.

But when it comes to social media, especially running social media, far too often what you see is not exactly the complete picture.

The Swan Metaphor

I’m sure we’ve all heard the metaphor about the swan, right?

When you see a swan on the water, they are sitting there majestic AF and everything look so calm and peaceful.

But beneath the water?

That same swan is paddling like crazy to stay afloat and glide across the pond.

And the metaphor, in case you’re not exactly picking up what I’m putting down, is that even for a swan it takes a lot of “beneath the surface” work to portray the image that they are just floating casually across the surface of the water.

As runners, especially on social media, the same is very often true.

What You Don’t See Matters

What sometimes get lost in the swan metaphor is that if the swan isn’t kicking like crazy it’s not going to be sitting there all fancy on top of the water.

And the same thing is true for us as runners on social media!

The things we don’t often see posted or talked about are the keys that make what we do see possible.

What are those things that are so important that we don’t see?

It’s the little things. The shitty runs. The strength training or yoga or whatever else.

It’s the stuff that doesn’t look sexy. That doesn’t get all the likes and shares.

But if we ignore those things? Good luck ever seeing the success you are striving for in our sport.

Make It Happen

At the end of the day, the choice is yours.

Do you want to put in the effort or not?

Or are you just going to keep scrolling through social media, see what things people are doing, and say it must be nice that so and so is doing such and such.

Because you know what?

What you see so and so doing is nothing more than being that majestic AF swan gliding across the water looking all regal and shit.

The real reason that so and so is doing such and such is because they are working like crazy beneath the surface doing the things that are required to make the swanning possible.

If you wanna be the swan, you know what you gotta do.

Whether or not you do those things is totally up to you.

What is One Area Below the Surface That You Need to Address Going Forward?

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