By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you cope under stress. Reading time: 4:02

Picture yourself as a marathon runner midway into your 26-mile 385-yard challenge.

Your lungs are burning. Your legs are heavier with each step. Your breathing’s erratic.

And the pain rips through your body like so many coffin nails piercing your feet every time your foot hits the ground.

You want to zone out. You have to zone out.

But then the leader in you takes charge. And you do the opposite. You zoom in.

Elite runners -leaders-zoom in. They “focus intensely,” observes author Geoff Colvin in his book Talent is Overrated. “They count their breaths and simultaneously count their strides to maintain certain ratios.”

Meanwhile recreational runners-followers by definition- zone out. They “think about anything other than what they’re doing,” adds Colvin. “It s painful and they want to take their mind off running.”

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