Latest / Impact Ready / 106. Find Your Pace for the Race

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106. Find Your Pace for the Race · Impact Ready

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  Hello team, welcome to the show today.
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  Thank you for being here today. In this episode, I want to talk
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  about creating your pace, your pace for work, your pace for
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  life. This episode is really about how
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  we find sustainability in the pace that we move in life.
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  It's how do we show up consistently and intentionally
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  so that we can have the impact that we want to have.
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  Oftentimes we talk about the pursuit of goals on this show.
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  And it's because I'm talking to you, a person who is very
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  impactful you who cares and invests in trying to be a better
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  version of yourself. And so when the conversation
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  centers around goals and pursuits and achievements, often
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  we always talk about strategies for how you can increase your
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  likelihood of reaching those goals.
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  We talk about clarity and vision, really understanding
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  what it is that you want in your life, what aligns with your
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  values, what you care about, what's actually going to make
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  you feel like you're living a purposeful, fulfilled life.
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  Because we don't want to act and work just to act and work.
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  We want it to feel purposeful. So the clarity and vision piece
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  is really important. We always talk about action, how
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  to get into action, the strategies around being
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  effective in action. And that's just that's where the
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  rubber meets the road. That's how we actually move the
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  needle so that we are creating what we want, and that makes a
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  lot of sense. We talked about systems and
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  routines, how we can make some of this stuff automatic in our
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  lives, how we can reduce the friction and the drag, as I call
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  it, when it comes to getting to our goals.
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  The systems and the routines are really important, especially
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  when it comes to energy, because as we always say, if you don't
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  have energy, you don't have anything.
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  And energy is really the gateway to accessing everything you need
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  to be able to get to your goals. So that's really important.
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  But something we haven't talked about a lot is pace, the speed
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  at which we move. I know everybody wants to move
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  fast. I get that.
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  I know everybody wants to cut down the amount of time it takes
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  for them to get to their goals, but there's a little bit of a
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  hidden pitfall here that people miss when they're thinking about
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  going as fast as they can. And what it comes down to is
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  this issue of with speed, you risk burnout if you're not doing
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  it properly. And so how do we find a way to
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  keep your pace so you can show up consistently and avoid that
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  total burnout, avoid depleting your battery, avoid being the
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  person who has zero energy and no access to what they really
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  need. This is kind of the the tortoise
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  and the hare idea, where the tortoise and the hare start the
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  race at the same time. The tortoise moves slow and
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  steady throughout the race, is consistent, doesn't get
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  distracted, just keeps going. Whereas the hare sprints off the
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  line, gets distracted, is all over the place, is a much faster
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  animal, but ultimately loses the race.
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  And I know that you've seen this in real life.
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  You've probably seen it in team members, maybe family members,
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  friends, people who are so gung ho and so excited and they
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  launch off the line for things in their life, but they don't
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  ultimately finish anything. They don't reach their goals.
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  They sort of spin their wheels. That's not who we want to be.
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  So I want you to think about it this way.
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  How many times have you come out hot in regards to a new goal or
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  habit? How many times in your life have
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  you come out being so excited you just Sprint it off the line
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  and then you've gotten maybe a few weeks into it and you've
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  lost all your momentum, You've lost your motivation or your
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  enthusiasm. It happens all the time.
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  Happens all the time. I see it in clients, I see it in
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  patients, I see it in my friends.
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  People will start something with that initial motivation,
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  enthusiasm, and then what happens?
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  They lose steam, They run out of breath and air after that first
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  100 meter Sprint off the line and we get off track.
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  Happens all the time. Happens with health goals
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  specifically. That's my arena.
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  I work with people in health and so I see this all the time.
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  But it can happen with projects, it can happen with work, it can
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  happen at home. It happens with any kind of new
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  habit that we try to create. And so we how do we avoid this?
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  How do we create a pace for ourselves that feels
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  sustainable? I love Greg Mccune's book
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  Effortless. He also is the author of
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  Essentialism. I talk about him a lot because I
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  just love the way he writes and I love his strategies.
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  But he describes a strategy to sort of moderate your pace in a
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  sustainable way as using upper bounds and lower bounds.
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  And what he means by that is what is the minimum amount of
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  work that I will do on this thing or with this habit each
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  day? That's my lower bound.
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  And then also, what is the most work or effort that I will put
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  in each day for this thing? That's my upper bound.
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  So for example, if we were to think about somebody who wanted
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  to be a little bit more active, they wanted to increase their
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  daily steps. Somebody might say the minimum
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  amount of effort that I'm going to do each day is get 8000
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  steps. I've been at like two or three.
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  That's not going to work for me. That's not getting me to my
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  goals. So I might, I know that I need
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  to get to 10K every day, but the minimum amount that I'm going to
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  do is 8. And then that would be
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  considered their lower bound. And then they might say the
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  maximum amount of steps that I'm going to do every single day is
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  12,000. And some people are like, but
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  wait, why wouldn't they do more? Why wouldn't they?
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  If they were on a roll, why wouldn't they just get 15K or
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  25K steps in a day? Wouldn't that be better?
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  And therein lies the pitfall that so many people fall into
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  with this idea of pace is if I'm on a roll, why don't I just keep
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  pushing and going hard? And the reason is because so
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  often people will go really hard for a couple of days and then
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  something will waylay them. Something will get them off
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  track. In the case of the daily steps,
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  this is actually a real story. I had a patient who wanted to
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  start getting 10,000 steps a day.
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  The first week she made this goal, she went out and did like
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  15 to 20,000 steps in a day, every single day.
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  And she was crushing it. She was like, this is so
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  awesome. I'm feeling so good after 8 days
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  of doing that. She hurt her knee because she
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  had not been building up. She hadn't been doing this at
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  all before she set this goal. And so she came out hot.
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  She came out off the line and ran out of gas at the 100m mark.
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  She was walking 20,000 steps a day and ended up injuring her
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  knee. And then she was out for like a
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  couple of weeks. And after those couple weeks,
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  she's like, I just don't feel the motivation to get back into
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  this now. I'm worried I'm going to hurt
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  myself now. I'm in fear that I'm doing too
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  much now. I'm not sure that this is even
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  the right thing for me. And so because she didn't have a
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  minimum amount and an maximum amount per day and upper and a
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  lower bound, she just pushed too hard and it ended up burning her
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  out in the end. And this can happen with so many
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  things. For example, I have another
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  colleague right now who's writing a book, and he is one of
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  the smartest people I know, but he came off hot off the line.
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  He worked really hard for about a month on his book, and he has
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  not touched it for five months because he got burned out.
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  He was working 7-8 hours a day on this book into the late hours
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  of the night. He was really fired up and
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  excited about it, but he didn't pace himself.
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  He didn't have a minimum amount of work that he was going to do
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  each day, and he didn't have a maximum amount.
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  So he just went hard and he hasn't touched his book project
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  for five months. And this dude's got to produce
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  this book. He's so smart.
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  That's the problem that so many people fall into with pacing.
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  They just get burned out, they overdo it, and then they get
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  waylaid and off track. So what would be a solution for
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  somebody like that who's trying to write a book?
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  Well, maybe the minimum amount of work to do each day is 10
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  minutes of writing. That's the lower bound.
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  And then maybe the maximum amount of work that you would do
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  on a book is an hour of writing. Now you can set your upper and
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  lower bound however you want, but the idea is to keep yourself
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  within a margin that feels sustainable for the long term so
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  that you don't risk pushing yourself over the edge with
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  effort and getting injured or distracted or burned out.
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  Same thing can go for learning a language or a new instrument.
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  Minimum amount, 5 minutes of practice a day.
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  Maximum amount, 30 minutes of practice so that I don't work
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  for three hours learning Spanish on Duolingo.
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  And then the next week I'm like, screw it, I'm just sick of it.
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  I don't want to do it anymore. We want to avoid that kind of
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  stuff and it matters. The pacing matters.
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  Why does it matter? Because we can have all the
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  strategies in the world. We can have all the systems and
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  the routines in the world. We can have a lot of energy, but
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  if we are burned out, we're not going to do it.
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  Pacing also keeps us from having this false illusion that we
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  don't have to work on something for a while because we already
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  did so much. That sort of Start Stop energy
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  so often busts up your streak with work.
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  It slows your momentum down and it's really at the heart of it.
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  It's the behavior of the hare, where you might be a really fast
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  animal but you don't end up winning the race in the end.
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  It's the tortoise who does. And it's that age-old lesson
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  that slow and steady wins the race.
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  I mean, we've heard it a million times.
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  Don't burn yourself out with your pursuits.
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  These things are really important to you, otherwise you
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  wouldn't be working on them. You're only one person.
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  You only have so much bandwidth, so be intentional and consistent
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  with how you use it. You'll be amazed at how
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  consistent small actions add up to create huge impact in your
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  life. Be the tortoise.
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  Slow and steady wins the race. Find your pace, use your lower
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  bound and your upper bound and just put in those small,
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  consistent efforts every single day.
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  I promise you, you will end up so much further at the end of
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  the year than you ever thought you could and so much further
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  along than if you were acting like the hair.
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  So I hope this helps today. My challenge to you this week is
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  to find your pace so that you can maximize the powerful impact
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  that you have in your life. Thank you for being here, thank
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  you for listening, and as always, thank you for being
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  ready to impact.