When I lived in Cheju Island, Korea and worked at Hyatt, whenever I could, I went for a run in the hilly terrains of Halla mountain. It is nothing like a mountain race but you can enjoy the thrills of uphill and down hill terrains.

Many would think that running uphill is the difficult part, but that takes a bit of fitness and determination. The skill is to run downhill effectively. To run quickly downhill quickly you must be prepared to let yourself go. You will have to trust your body to do what it knows how to do naturally – to relax, allow your feet to find your balance and the right place to land.
If your muscles are tense, fighting against each step and with your mind fearful of falling, then your pace slows and you are more likely to fall or injure yourself. Learning to run downhill quickly is to about learning to get out of own way.

That is true off the hills too. I was mentoring one of our Managers who was opening manager of a hotel, who was sort of stuck and lacked inspiration.

I asked him, what would he do if he knew he could not fail? He said he would become the President of his country, so he could tackle some of his country biggest problems. He was serious about it.

Becoming President one day is well within this young persons grasp, should he choose. When we started to explore the possibility, he began to realize that the only thing in his way was the self-doubt and fear of failure.

This applies equally in business. Often Senior Management in organizations declare something is not possible, to change or to do something differently. When they start to examine the assumptions they realize that that’s all they are –assumptions. Normally when those assumptions are challenged, they melt away and a new reality emerges.

If humankind would have been held back by fear and assumptions, we would have never put the man on the moon or made the highest and the fastest jump in the history after ascending by helium balloon to an altitude of 128,100 feet, like Felix Baumgartner, or see the end of polio. We must learn to get out of our own way, inspired by higher purpose, learn to run downhill quickly. After all, inspirations, like gravity, are on our side- if we allow it.