Imagine the following situation…

You are in a race. You’ve just started. It’s a 7 kilometers (4.34 miles) race.

Like any other normal human being. You start highly motivated. 

This motivation keeps hitting you during the first kilometers. 

Suddenly you see a sign that says… 3rd kilometer… And you start thinking… 

Wow I’ve only ran 3 kilometers and I am quite tired when I am missing more than half the race. 

Then it starts to get a bit harder. Your brain starts making you think you’re giving your full potential and you can’t run anymore. This is just your brain trying to fool you, a survival instinct, your brain wants you to stop, to avoid the danger and to avoid getting tired. 

In reality, when you finish the race, you realize you could’ve actually ran faster and longer. This is completely true. 

Why? 

Well let’s imagine one last, simpler, scenario. 

You are trying to do as many pushups as you can. 

You start getting tired, you think you can’t do anymore pushups and you stop.

Well, it’s been proven that in that exact moment, the moment you stop because you think you can’t go on, you’ve only given 40% of your whole potential. 

That’s why in sports, as well as in life, we shouldn’t let our brain fool us, we are capable of more than we think and we should be aware of that at every moment.