At one time, you might have had a success story about endurance running. Maybe you had the resolve to begin and you saw an amazing transformation in your life: you watched the pounds fall off, the pant sizes drop, and your energy go up. You finished marathon after marathon and never felt better.

Do you consider yourself a high-performance worker? Maybe you’re known for climbing the ladder, crushing the competition, and getting the job done. Maybe it’s who you used to be. It could be that you lost your mojo somewhere along the way or that you were never that person to begin with.

For those of us with professional ambitions, opportunities will inevitably come our way. While this is an exciting prospect, discerning which opportunities will ultimately take us to where we want to be personally and professionally can be a challenge.

Whether you’ve just made up your mind to use that gym membership or you’ve committed to training for your first 5k, going from an inactive, sedentary lifestyle to an active lifestyle can be tough in more ways than one. One of the biggest and most important shifts you’ll have to make is in your eating and nutritional habits. After all, exercise is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to your health.

I often find myself thinking about finance. That’s not just because I’m in the business of real estate investing, but that certainly plays a big part in it. I think that in our current era, when we’re coming off of the mortgage crisis and seeing nationwide retirement woes, now more than ever I’m concerned for the generation coming up.

What’s the number one thing people are looking for in their careers today?

You might be surprised that it’s not about money. People are looking to follow their passions. They believe that if they’re doing something they’re passionate about, they will be successful.

As an endurance runner, I’ve faced more than my fair share of running injuries and challenges. While in some respects injury is inevitable, many common ailments that endurance runners and marathoners face can be avoided with the right know-how. While all sorts of issues can plague runners, from hip problems to calve pains, none are more common than foot injuries.

One of the most potentially powerful things for the success of any career is an effective mentorship. For most of us, however, we struggle to know where to find a mentor, what a good mentorship looks like, how to model mentorship, and what we should be getting out of the experience.

Most of us are guilty of bad habits. Whether we have too much of a sweet tooth, leave our socks on the floor, or chronically misplace the car keys, most of our bad habits are fairly harmless. That said, there are some habits that can land us in the serious trouble.

Have you ever hit a wall?

 Walls in life can come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. They can be physical walls, like those that an endurance runner faces. When you near that last leg of the race, the “wall” is that moment when your body just seems to give up. Your energy is gone, your arms and legs feel like lead, and nothing in you believes that you’ll actually be able to cross that finish line.

Those of us in roles of leadership rarely get a day off. No matter how you feel or what you’re going through, you probably have someone who still looks to you for the answers. You’re going to be the guy people go to for inspiration, motivation, and the will to carry on.

Being an entrepreneur is a distinctly uncomfortable career path. I can tell you from firsthand experience that putting yourself out there, marketing yourself, giving speeches and seminars, and writing books all sounds like a dream but there is something about striking out on that path that gets really, really uncomfortable.

When we think about summer, we tend to think about lazy afternoons, grilling out, and beach trips with the family. If we happen to think about summer health concerns, we might think about drinking enough water and wearing sunscreen. What we might not realize is that this time of year comes with a whole host of unique health challenges and opportunities.

If you’ve ever been in any role of leadership, you know that getting people to play their part, volunteer, or just step up to help can sometimes be a challenge. As the leader, prompting the people around you to do what you want them to do can be an exercise in frustration. So how do you navigate the difficulties that come from asking for help without sabotaging yourself or your project? How do you get competent people to actually want to help you?

Short of committing to a long-term and total life change, fitness goals can often seem like an exercise in futility. We often make fitness goals, whether they’re part of new year’s resolutions or made throughout the year when we’ve had enough of the consequences of our bad habits.

Working remotely is becoming a more and more prevalent practice as we become an increasingly connected world. Rather than coming into physical office spaces, workers are making offices where they are, whether in spare bedrooms or at kitchen tables, in coffee shops or public parks.

Crossroads in life are inevitable. Whether personal or professional, big decisions will be there at one time or another to cause sleepless nights, long discussions, and countless hours spent weighing pros and cons. Navigating these times can cause more than their fair share of stress and anxiety. After all, big decisions can bring massive and irreversible life changes.

None of us enjoy failure. In fact, there’s little we enjoy less. As an endurance runner, I can clearly remember those first few difficult runs when I was just getting into the sport. In the very beginning, every run is a challenge. You’re more concerned with crossing the finish line than you are making the best time.

With an endless supply of health trends coming out of the woodwork every year, it’s hard for your Average Joe to know what’s actually going to benefit their body. We can scrutinize fad diets and miracle foods all day, but separating fact from fiction seems like a job that’s only possible for professional nutritionists.

Sometimes setting goals can be an exercise in discouragement. Halfway through the year and looking back at several abandoned new year’s resolutions, I think many of us can attest to this truth.