The above is a poster that I helped design for a friend of mine who recently broke a Guinness World Book record for miles run in sand in 24 hours. http://bit.ly/apTId9 He ran a total of 83.04 miles within the 24-hour period. The previous running-in-sand world record was for 62.28 miles. Just to clarify, this was running non-stop with only a 5-15 minute break between each 3.4 mile lap for 24 hours straight. Think about it. Running for 24 hours straight? Then add to that running in deep, loose sand. It is pretty unbelievable. But I was there at 3 a.m. when he broke the world record, 9 hours ahead of the previous record, and I watched him keep on running to complete the full 24 hours. I saw him do it, and I still can hardly believe he did.

So, what am I trying to say? How about that pretty much anything is possible if we set our minds to it. And yet most of the time most people never come near to accomplishing their full potential. I know for myself there are a list of things that I never seem to get to. And maybe therein lies the problem: a lack of focus. In order to accomplish the monumental things, everything else has to become secondary. You have to decide what it is that you want to do (hmmm) and then develop laserbeam focus for that one task, disregarding everything else except the essentials. But we all know how hard that is.

There are so many, many distractions in our daily lives, more now than ever before. Technology has enabled us in many ways, but it’s also a time suck. Inundated by emails. Absorbed by ginormous widescreen movies in our own homes. Keeping up not with the Jonses, but with our friends, which now number in the hundreds thanks to Facebook. And then there’s the ulitmate distraction: “Call of Duty: Black Ops”. How many countless hours have been lost to video games? On the day that particular game was released, $360 million was spent to purchase it in North America and the United Kingdom alone. Maybe that’s another thing holding us back: Priorities. How did Black Ops become the most talked about thing on TV, radio and Twitter on the day of its release? How is it that we value slaughtering virtual characters more than accomplishing personal goals?

Think of what we could do to change the world, and ourselves, if we all got focused on something truly important.

Back to my friend Christian Burke, the 24-hour runner. Having completed the one goal he set himself, he has set another, which I don't doubt he will accomplish. His aim now is to run a full marathon in every nation in the world – there’s 195 of them. He wants to bring his love of running to the world. And he gets closer to reaching this goal every day by focusing with unswerving vision on the finish line. You can follow his journey here: http://www.runeverynation.org/