Learning from Andy Murray

Tomorrow Andy Murray will become the World number 1 tennis player.  What an unbelievable achievement in an era dominated by Djokovic, Nadal and Federer.  He's only the 4th man in the last 13 years to climb to the no 1 position.  So what lessons can we take from this incredible achievement?
I had the privilege of working with Andy Murray creating 3 promotional DVDs for David Lloyd Leisure to extend the 3 x 3 hour sessions they had of his time into a years worth of material.  It's not the type of work I'm normally involved in but they wanted my tennis (I used to be a pro tennis coach) and marketing experience.  He was an absolute joy to work with and the way he gave his time to kids, while keeping Sky Sports waiting, showed his class.  But back then in 2007/8 he was number 11 in the world when I first met him.  5 months later he was 4 in the world and nobody (including John McEnroe and Peter Fleming) thought he'd get to number 1 never mind win Wimbledon.  But Andy believed he would and has worked tirelessly to achieve that seemingly impossible goal.  It took him another 8 years with some big set backs along the way but he did it.
I was thinking about Andy's achievement as I was out running today.  Building it up slowly with a 10km trail run and improving on my time by 2 minutes from the day before - incremental gains!  However if I was to think about my main goal next year which is a 6 day staged race in the Grand Canyon (Day 1 30 miles, Day 2 30 miles, Day 3 53 miles, Day 4 26 miles, Day 5 26 miles, Day 6 7 miles) with the heat, the altitude and the physical climbing, it seems nearly impossible / improbable.  But understanding what Andy Murray has done to achieve his number 1 world ranking is inspirational as he's beating all the odds.  In a small way I intend doing the same!
So while I'm running short distances around Chatelherault, I will be thinking how these are the building blacks to my main goal.  I'm working on my breathing and controlling my heart rate so that when the distance starts getting longer, and I'm running with a weighted rucksack, I won't be wasting energy breathing inefficiently which reduces my chance of success.  I'll be getting my head into "Andy's mindset" which is you can achieve whatever you want if you have the desire. 
I'll leave you with one of my favourite quotes; "a goal without a plan is just a wish".  Get planning!