At 100 years old, Julia Hawkins decided to take up the sport of running. She had long been a cyclist and reached a point where she could no longer ride a bike, so she thought it might be fun to run a 100 meter dash at 100 years old. She would go on to break the world record for women over 100 with a time of 39.62 seconds. Julia is now still racing at 106 years old and most recently inspired the creation of a new women’s 105+ age bracket. Instead of fading into the sunset in the later years of her life, Julia is choosing to finish life strong.

In the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, John Stephen Akhwari represented Tanzania in the Marathon. During the race he fell, badly cutting his leg and dislocating his knee. Despite suggestions that he go to the hospital, he picked himself up and proceeded to continue the race. He would finish in last place under a police escort over an hour after the other competitors had finished. When asked why he kept going he said; “My country didn’t send me 5,000 miles to start this race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish it.” 17 of the 74 competitors didn’t finish that race that day, but Akhwari wasn’t one of them. He chose to finish his day strong.

Finishing strong is not just for runners. I’ve written about the historic September that our team recently accomplished. I can’t say that we aren’t tired. We’ve had our ups and downs, our frustrations and celebrations. I can’t say that it’s been easy - we are being pushed to our limits for sure. But what I can say is that we finished strong. Strong enough to hit October head on and charge through two weeks that were just as busy as any of the weeks in September. We finished September strong and this week I encouraged our team to finish October strong too. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. November will provide a reprieve before we gear up for the holidays, and our team continues to support each other on many levels to ensure that the load is spread evenly. It’s our choice, though, on how we want to finish.

Finishing strong requires resilience. It demands that we push through painful and challenging times in pursuit of a bigger purpose. It provides the opportunity to complete what has been started with a sense of pride. Finishing strong is a choice that we get to make every day, every week, every month, every year. Every project we take on, every situation we step into, we get to decide how we will finish. Leaders have to set that example for our teams. As one week bleeds into the next, I’ve been thinking a lot about where those end points are and what I need to personally finish strong. There are 80 days left in 2022 and I know I still have a lot to accomplish if I want to look back on New Year’s Day, and say that I finished the year strong. Let’s Go!