Just Keep Going When the Going is Tough!

Now comes the time. I’m out here on my own, all alone, going through the Alaska wilderness. I don’t know where I am; I don’t know how far I’ve gone. But I’ve been mushing for hours and hours and hours. I look down at my GPS; and I scrub the frost off it, so I can see—and it says 5.9. I thought, “Holy criminy, I’ve gone only 5.9 miles? I’ve been out here all day.” And I had only 50 miles to go. So I’m going and going and going for another hour or so. I brush off the frost and look at my GPS: 6.1. I’m never going to get to that check station. I started feeling so down, so deflated, that I had been out there for hours.

I didn’t have a watch on. I wasn’t paying attention to the time. I just saw the sun move around and head down. I’m still out in the middle of Alaska, nowhere, and I’ve gone only 6.1 miles! I was thinking, “This is impossible. I can’t do this. No one told me it was going to be this difficult.” I had to get off the sled and run with the dogs up the hill, because it was a little too much for this young team of pups. They were 2-year-olds, and it was perhaps their first race.

I started up over this hill, and as I came over the hill, the sun was just going down; and at this moment, I saw a man standing there with a camera. It was John Whetten! I thought, “There’s only one way John could be here. The check station has got to be around the corner.” Oh, my goodness, I felt so excited! I was just on a high. I came around the corner into the check station.

And folks, here’s another secret for you. Achieving your first goal, if it’s a Star, Executive, Silver, or whatever it is, when you achieve that goal, it gives you a certain amount of excitement inside. It charges your adrenaline. Success is giving you that shot of excitement for the next goal. And here’s the key: Always make your next goal bigger than the one you just accomplished. Please do that.