Everywhere I go these days, I’m asked about New Year’s Resolutions. Seems they’re sticking around a bit longer this year. I’m cool with that, as long as we don’t end up putting our faith in them. I know, this is the part where you shove your chair away from your computer, grab your hair, and shriek: “WHAT IS GOING ON?”
It’s true, I’ve always claimed an aversion to New Year’s Resolutions, on the grounds that life is longer than a resolution, no matter how sincere or well planned. I have long believed that New Years Resolutions set people up for failure much more than for success. I’m not about to blow that off now.
And yes, in the past I have encouraged you to view commitments or decisions with a long view; more as marathons and less like sprints. That was good advice at the time. However, I have recently been thinking that it’s time for a different approach.
What I’ve learned from putting together the products I told you about last week–– and what I want to recommend now —allows for you to sprint all you want. And, it mandates that you allocate recovery time after every sprint, to get back in the place of health and to prevent burnout and all the terrors that come with that.
Essentially, I want to encourage you give your all to a certain short-term project and then rest, recover, and renew.
For example, think about the energy of a sprinter after one of their races compared to a marathoner after one of theirs. At the end, the marathoner looks like they’ve been hit by a truck, while the sprinter looks like they could go again in a few minutes. This difference could be in the fact that the sprinter gets to see the goal in front of them the whole time they are running, while the marathoner can’t see 26 miles out. The discipline makes a difference, sure, but what if you could coach yourself into turning the marathon into a bunch of sprints? What you can see the finish line all the time?
I’m confident that if you look at this next year, this coming adventure–as a series of sprints, you will have no trouble making the time to be able to give your all for short bursts. You will train for it, focus on it, give yourself over to it, and “leave it all on the track”.
But, as you have also found to be equally true: when you’re done, you’re done.
I’m convinced that the key to your success in 2011 will be your ability and commitment to building plenty of “Quality Recovery Time” into your schedule.
When you live your life like a marathon, you’re running as fast as you can for as long as you can on disposable batteries. And when those batteries start to run down, something is going to need to get disposed of – your health, your relationships, your integrity, your work, your equilibrium, your faith…the list goes on.
I found out recently that even marathoners (at least the top marathoners) practice primarily through interval training – bursts of intense activity followed up by periods of slower activity and/or complete rest. And these periods of oscillation – from high activity to low activity/recovery time to high activity to low activity/recovery time – not only allow you to sustain high performance, they actually enhance and enlarge your capacity so you can perform better and better over time.
Stu Mittleman, the long time world’s record holder in the 1000 mile race, applied a sprinter’s mentality to competing in his ultra-distance races. Here’s how he described his strategy for a six day race where the winner is measured by the maximum distance covered in a six day period of time in his own words:
“I will walk for the entire first hour of each five hour segment. The next hour, I will run, followed by another one hour walk, another one hour run, and finishing with a third and final one hour walk.”
Mittleman repeated these five hour segments four times a day, sleeping for the final four hours of each day. The result?
At the end of the first day, bottom third.
At the end of the second day, bottom third.
At the end of the third day, middle of the field.
At the end of the fourth day, third place.
At the end of the fifth day, second place.
At the end of the race, he and the ultimate winner crossed the finish line together.
The point is this: You can do a lot more than you ever thought you could (and you can do a lot already) in an even shorter period of time– IF you’re willing to build a routine designed around periods of intense activity followed by periods of quality recovery time.
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We now come to the first self-leadership exercise of 2011.
- I’d like to challenge you to first identify the activities that you would like to be able to give your all to in the coming months but are concerned about the toll it might take on your health, relationships or other areas of your life.
- Then, design a “sprinting” routine that will be sustainable for a fixed period of time. Make sure the project has a finish line, and that each unit of activity is balanced out by an equal and opposite period of rest and recovery. Know that you will probably have to adjust your routine as you go, but never increase the intensity or duration of your activity without also increasing the quality and duration of your recovery time.
You’ve always known what lies within you. Feel your feelings, trust your strengths, and make the wise choice.
Oh, and don’t forget to lead your life.
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