As you can probably guess from previous posts, I love drawing analogies and comparisons between the things I've learned as an athlete and the things I've learned running a company.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about endurance and persistence. Since January, I've been doing 14-16 mile runs on the weekends. For me, this is pretty epic -- I've never done this much running in my life. I am not a naturally talented runner, and before I started doing these longer runs I really did not like running all that much. At the same time, it's the sport I need to work on most in triathlons so I'm making it happen. It's taken a great deal of motivation, persistence and determination to complete these runs.
When I first started doing my long runs it was nearly impossible for me to think about them in their entirety. It was too overwhelming. To get through them, I used a lot of self-talk and setting small goals (common refrains in my head during these runs: "Ok, I'm at mile 9, I just need to get to 9.5", "Just run to that lamp post over there", "Just get over this hill and reassess", "I'm going to count to 100 before I look at my watch again", "If I can get through this last half mile I'm going to have the biggest bagel sandwich I've ever had, then go to Ample Hills").
Breaking up the runs into little goals made the task of completing them more manageable.
Starting a company, or a new project (like a podcast!) is a lot of the same. When I think about all the things we need to do at ScriptEd it's incredibly overwhelming. We take time to make big picture plans, but most of my time is breaking down all of those big things we need to do into small action items. I love check lists (and checking things off those lists). We'll always have more work to do, but getting little things done every day helps me know that we're making progress.
Maurya, I've encountered that same sense of overwhelmingness before the start of a big task. Thinking about all the things that have to be done to reach that end point always daunts me.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've trained myself to do is exactly what you do: be purposely tunnel visioned. Keep the big picture in the back of your head but don't obsess on it. Like a relationship, take it one day at a time and periodically make time to reflect and assess (through writing, for example).
I started a new year's resolution of running 1 mile a day (I'm told Zuckerberg is doing the same - he's copying me). It's really manageable and actually a lot of fun. Had I instead told myself "OK Manish, run 365 miles this year", I don't think I would have made it.