My friend and sales guru Dan Waldschmidt inspired me. He ran a 100-mile ultimate marathon recently, so I woke up this morning and decided to go for a run.

Seemed liked a good idea at the time.

Here’s the problem. I haven’t run in over 10 years, at least.

No, I’m not joking.

I haven’t run more than 40 yards in over 10 years.

Realizing how long it’s been, I set a very low goal — 1 mile.

Yup, that’s it. I was gonna run one mile.

So, up out of bed I get. I drop a pin on Google maps a half mile out from my house. I put on my sneakers and off I go.

First 200 yards, I’m feeling great. Next 200 yards, I’m starting to feel it. Another quarter mile and I’m ready to turn around. I was dying at the half mile mark.

It took every ounce of my mental strength to push through. I was dying.

One-mile and you would have thought I ran a marathon.

My inspiration got waaaay ahead of my capabilities.

Too often, we’re inspired by others. I was inspired by Dan. The problem is, that’s them, not us. It’s good to be inspired, but we need to know what our capabilities are. We need to know what we’re capable of and start there.

I have no desire to run 100 miles. But I do need to get back in shape. I thought I was capable of running a mile. I wasn’t.

Tomorrow I’m going to run just shy of a mile. I’m going to find out what I’m capable of, then look to expand my capabilities.

It’s not what you can’t do that matters, it’s what you can do. Once you know what you can do, set realist goals to get better and go from there.

Don’t let your inspirations get ahead of your capabilities. It gets ugly, I promise you.