Being an individual leader is intensely personal. It isn’t defined by your title, rank, or accolades – it’s a mindset that informs how you show up in every aspect of your life and approach your personal and professional goals.
Nathan Harbison, Manager and Relationship Team Leader in Houston, has adopted a growth-oriented mindset, rejecting complacency and consistently working toward his big, scary, most meaningful dreams. For him, being an individual leader means challenging himself to be better.
In 2021, Nathan found himself feeling unchallenged and unmotivated in his typical routine. He became energized by adventure racing documentaries – hearing about people who accomplished incredible athletic feats, the adversity they encountered, and how they overcame those challenges. His hunger for change grew, and the documentary Iron Cowboy: The Story of the 50-50-50 provided him with the final push he needed to try something new.
“The subject, James Lawrence, said that what’s important is doing something that’s difficult for where you are,” explained Nathan. “I thought, ‘Well, I’m in a rut. What would be difficult for me?’ I knew that I enjoyed running and the furthest I’d ever run was seven miles. So, I thought about a half marathon for a while, but I felt confident that I could do it and ultimately decided that it wasn’t scary enough. I asked myself again, ‘What is something that is very intimidating?’ A marathon.”
Full steam ahead
Nathan wasted no time diving into the research. He determined that a 20-week training plan was right for him and found a race in Dallas that was 24 weeks out. “I really enjoyed the process of seeing what I could do physically – if I could run further, if I could run faster,” said Nathan.
His training wasn’t without obstacles, and when the race in Dallas was cancelled, he chose to remain committed. “The whole journey was to say, ‘Can I do it? Even if that meant doing it by myself.”
He planned a racecourse around town, designating stops for his friend to meet him with water and fuel. Crossing the finish line was satisfying, and it only motivated Nathan to push himself further. With a free entry from the cancelled race in Dallas, Nathan booked his second marathon in 2021. Then, a friend interested in joining in on the challenge encouraged Nathan to sign up for a third marathon in that same year.
With three Texas marathons under his belt, it was onto the major marathons, and he etched Chicago and New York into his 2022 calendar, each a month apart. Next came Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth and the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. Before he knew it, Nathan had completed eight marathons within a little over three years – the latest being Paris in 2024.
“I find there’s joy in pushing your limits,” shared Nathan. “When I’m being complacent and going with the flow of things, I’m uninspired and don’t feel as good as I could. People reveal their best selves when they’re motivated to go after a goal of theirs.”
A long and bumpy road
Nothing ever goes as planned, and when your dreams mean a lot to you, this uncertainty can be an incredibly intimidating reality. For Nathan’s third marathon – his first road race – the result wasn’t what he aimed for, and falling short of your goals is always discouraging, causing some to give up or shy away from trying in the first place.
But finding the courage to wade through both the ups and downs of your big, meaningful dreams is important; the dreams you set must be meaningful to be fulfilling. “Your dreams should be something that you want to have to work for and overcome obstacles to achieve, rather than just being easy wins all the time,” Nathan explained. “They should inspire individual leadership.”
Individual leadership also requires having Patient Urgency – the understanding that, with your big goals, success is not immediate and long-term consistency is a grueling requirement.
“Patient Urgency kind of sums up marathon training. Even the shortest training schedules are months long. You’re waking up every morning and saying that you’re going to run today because you’ve got this big goal down the road. It’s understanding how your actions today relate to your performance in the future – understanding that you’re not going to get what you want today, and you probably won’t get it tomorrow either, but you have to keep working for it.”
“I’ve applied this same mindset to my career,” continued Nathan. “When thinking about what I want to do five, 10, 20 years down the line, I also need to think about what I need to do within the next six months, one year, two years to get there.”
An exponential impact
If you’re not challenging yourself, then you’re not doing anything new, and you’re not putting yourself in a position to grow. By pushing himself to overcome challenge after challenge on his running journey, Nathan has achieved multi-faceted success and opened doors that he never would have expected to come out of running.
“Going after your passions, challenging yourself – these things make you a more compelling person and help you to understand yourself better,” Nathan discussed. “This could lead to success personally and professionally as you better connect with more people and understand what you want out of life and what makes you feel fulfilled.”
Traveling is another passion of Nathan’s that his marathon-running journey has inspired him to embrace. Since completing the Paris Marathon, he has become more intentional about branching out to different countries and exploring new places with his wife and friends in the running community.
“When we talk about exponentially improving lives, that comes from setting these really intense, ambitious goals that are going to be scary, require a good amount of dedication and Patient Urgency over a long period of time, and take courage. When you work toward something, you learn a lot about yourself, how you problem solve, and what’s important to you. Challenging yourself creates the opportunity for you to learn and grow into a more holistic person.”
