“Never decide the outcome of a race at any point during the race…just keep going”.

Triathlete, Kathryn MacKinnon, hit me hard with this quote during a Queen Pins Halifax fundraising event I attended last Thursday. I keep repeating it to myself and coming back to how important it is because this rings so true for all aspects of life. I’m a runner and have known all too well the temptation to slow down or take a break or give in to the little voice that says it’s ok to not do your best today.

Throughout my encounters with depression and anxiety, I learned to coach myself and remind myself to put one foot in front of the other and to just keep going. After losing a baby to a missed miscarriage, when the world felt dark and I felt betrayed by my own body, with a family counting on me to show up for life everyday, and all I could do to cope was to just keep going one step at a time.

That’s what I did. I kept going. I didn’t know how I was going to finish in my 21.2k race and I didn’t know if I’d get through the darkness or if I’d have a healthy pregnancy again. But I finished and I made it through another pregnancy. I’m making it through and isn’t that what all of us are really doing?

So, here’s the secret in case you haven’t already figured it out:

just keep going.

Yup. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Isn’t that how any of us accomplish anything? We set a goal, make a plan, and just keep going. Nothing groundbreaking about it. As adults, as parents, as athletes, as entrepreneurs: we are figuring things out one day at a time, but we just keep going.

I recorded a teaser episode of Run For Your Life with Melissa Kahn last night, and we decided I was the tech savvy half of the duo so I needed to figure out how to upload our episode and create an RSS feed and get it submitted to iTunes. Ummmmm wtf do I know about this stuff? Nothing!

Well…I knew nothing last night but here I am 12 hours later doing my happy dance (picture something cross between a jig and a shimmy) because after a helpful video link posted by a fellow queen pin entrepreneur and following the twists and turns of online support I FIGURED IT OUT!!!! I just kept going. I didn’t know if I’d have to hire a student to figure it out or if we’d have to pay for some service to straighten it out, but I didn’t let that potential outcome stop me from taking one step then another then another.

I always keep going. I think it’s all I know how to do, honestly.

During my half marathon I actually told myself to just keep going. Hell, I even got a tattoo of mountains to constantly remind myself to keep climbing. I had to stop to pee around the 5k mark of that race and I could have decided to abandon my goal time but I looked at my tattoo, talked to myself a little, and put one foot in front of the other. I did what we all do: I just kept going.

I don’t know exactly where my business is going to end up and I’m excited about the possibilities that allows for.  I don’t know where my running career will go, but I know that I’m going to keep running and that’s all that matters. I don’t know what’s coming next but I’m confident I can handle it because look at everything I’ve done so far! Everyday I get up and show up.

Today happens to be Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, and my message applies to all entrepreneurs regardless of gender, but I need to shout out to my boss babes to just keep going. Some of you are mothers and wives and that stuff is hard. Some of you are working a full-time job in addition to your business and that’s not easy. All of you are busting your butts to make your dreams a reality and that’s some magical sh*t right there.

Just keep going.