To get shit done is one of the best feelings ever, to not get the shit done that you wanted to get done is one of the worst. It’s not hard to fall short of the things that you set out to do, it really isn’t, I do it all the time. Actually, if I didn’t know any better I would have to say I am the best at falling short. It’s not that I shoot for lofty unattainable goals it’s that I lose steam and the old things that once distracted me now start to take its place. My greatest challenge in a life of pursuing my passions is to reignite the steam engines and keep pushing forward.
I often times see myself as a sprint runner, I have massive bursts of power and motivation but it can only be sustained for short periods of time. A sprint runner can’t run a 5K at the same pace as the 100m dash, it would be damn near impossible. In my current and previous pivots in life I have consciously been trying to change my running style from 100m dash to 5K. I know that sustaining the energy can only be done by pacing oneself and having a long term goal, not throwing all of your power behind one move.
Business is a sprint until you find an opportunity, then it’s the patience of a marathon runner. ~ Robert Herjavec
Writing 1000 words every day is an example of the 5K mentality. I know that this task isn’t meant to be rushed or forced. It is as much an exercise in being present with myself, building good and positive goals, as it is an exercise in long term stamina. The end goal is to help and inspire a lot of people to follow their own creative paths, the current goal is to just get my thoughts on paper. If I was forcing myself to write AAA level material everyday and publishing it immediately, the work would suffer and I would fizzle out. Here, it isn’t about instant gratification, it’s about building good habits to improve my being and presence.
I’ve been taking this perspective and applying it to much of what I do in the world these days, seeing the bigger picture and looking beyond the horizon. It takes a certain acceptance of oneself to be able to live this way. We have to be comfortable with who we are and understand that if we can accept who we are then we won’t need the instant gratification of the digital age, as much. I may not be 100% satisfied with who I am but I can accept the person that I am. There are things that I can change so those will be the things I work on changing. There are some things that I will never be able to change so those are the things that I will embrace and use to my advantage instead of to my detriment. There is a reason why addicts and alcoholics recite the Serenity prayer at the end of each NA/AA meeting: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can. The wisdom to know the difference.” We need to understand that there are things we cannot change and so much of the sprint to complete something is an example of that. Somethings just can’t be forced so when we are running at a sprint applying excessive pressure the likelihood of that pursuit to change and give in to what you seek is rare. When we take our time, calculate the path of least resistance and knock out a few bits and pieces each time we come at our pursuit the resistance becomes less and less, we’re now focused on the marathon not the sprint.
So here I am not living my own advice. The problem with sprint runners is we know we can’t sustain but yet we try to anyways. As great as my advice is, for someone who has been sprinting their whole life, it can be extremely difficult to change the thought patterns and exercise for the right task. This is my exercise. I am training myself to be a 5K runner not a sprint runner. Time to put my money where my mouth is, time to do the things I advise.
When I hear people debate the ROI of social media? It makes me remember why so many businesses fail. Most businesses are not playing the marathon. They’re playing the sprint. They’re not worried about lifetime value and retention. They’re worried about short-term goals. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk
I’ve been working on a project, a new digital business. Well an old idea but I am actually going to move forward with it. It can be lucrative, helpful to many people, and I think it could just be fun to build something and reinforce my 5K endeavors. There are certain requirements that I need in the form of website capabilities and I just don’t have the current subset of skills. Now, I’m fairly knowledgeable in the tech fields but programming, coding, and web development are just not my forte. I can read and understand what is happening in code but I am shit at writing it, mostly because I don’t do it often enough to gain any proficiencies. Here is where content management platforms come in handy. I’m currently using SquareSpace for my blog/personal site, I’ve learned it and I love it. It’s stupid easy but lacking in the primary feature I need for my upcoming project. What that means is that I need to learn a new CMS or re-learn web development, things I really don’t want to do.
Because I’m a trained sprint runner I have ran and ran as fast as I could but now I have some massive resistance in the form of skill constraints. What I need to do is learn a new platform or build a new skill, while this is beneficial in the long run, it is an extreme inconvenience in the short term. It means I have to push my roll out period, admittedly this is discouraging me and I have slowly putting off learning a new skill because it is hard and will take too long for my short term needs. The stamina has drained, I ran too fast too quickly and now there is little left. This is just a great example of what happens to sprint runners and why it isn’t a beneficial skill to have when you are trying to live a bigger picture. It’s also the reason why you don’t see a ton of super successful sprint runners in highly successful businesses, burnout rate is too high.
Thus the reason why I need to change my process from sprint running to marathon running. Today marks the first day that I do something about my current predicament, I start to learn a new skill. It may impede my release date but it provides long term benefits. I don’t see any alternatives. So here we go, time to take my advice, steady pace not crazy sprint. These are the moments that we find out who we are, they will define our success moving forward. For me a major defining factor will be whether I choose to continue being a sprint runner; ultimately having to settle on something I don’t love because the path was met with too much resistance. Or, preferentially, I become a marathon runner and learn to be able to see that making and doing something awesome takes time and needs to be looked at with long term ambitions. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty strange to be able to have these insights, share them with the world, and to be able to work actively to change my world, it’ll keep me honest with myself. It’s sort of exciting, you should try it.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. ~ Winston Churchill