Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to ask yourself what is sustainable? Could
Speaker 1: you keep doing what you are doing for the long haul?
Speaker 1: A steady, sustainable pace will take you further than a
Speaker 1: sprint that can only last for so long, and the
Speaker 1: long run is where most things happen. On my other podcast,
Speaker 1: Best of Both Worlds, my co host Sarah and I
Speaker 1: recently took a question from a listener who was taking
Speaker 1: up running. She found it hard to get motivated when
Speaker 1: she couldn't run for very long. Our biggest advice to
Speaker 1: her was to just slow down. So many novice runners
Speaker 1: think of running as sprinting, which is impossible to sustain
Speaker 1: for more than a little bit. A slow, conversational pace
Speaker 1: is much more doable, and at the beginning it might
Speaker 1: only be doable for a few minutes, but then you
Speaker 1: can take a walk break of a few minutes and
Speaker 1: try again. Over the course of a few months, you
Speaker 1: can gradually extend your slow running stretches until you can
Speaker 1: do a mile, and then two miles, and then three.
Speaker 1: If you can run three miles, which is about a
Speaker 1: five k, then congrats, you are a distance runner. You
Speaker 1: have built that ability up through slow, sustainable progress. So
Speaker 1: it is with anything people can do sprints toward deadlines,
Speaker 1: but in the long run you can't sustain a working
Speaker 1: pace and which everything is a sprint. If you generally
Speaker 1: need to work long hours, better to figure out what
Speaker 1: is a sustainable way to do that for many people
Speaker 1: that might be working quite late one to two nights
Speaker 1: per week and then having a normal life the rest
Speaker 1: of the time. You should also think about long term
Speaker 1: sustainability before you start any new commitment. Could you keep
Speaker 1: doing this forever? I am thinking here of Let's say
Speaker 1: a manager who gets the brilliant idea as a new
Speaker 1: year's resolution of writing birthday letters to every team member
Speaker 1: with lengthy accounts of what makes him or her so special.
Speaker 1: The January letters are fantastic, then Februaries letters are a
Speaker 1: little late and a lot shorter. And Marches is the
Speaker 1: last minute resented matter as things get busy, and that
Speaker 1: march direct report this feeling miffed. Much better to aim
Speaker 1: for just a card and a short note. But you
Speaker 1: truly can sustain all year long. Now, of course, it
Speaker 1: is not always obvious what is going to be sustainable
Speaker 1: and what is not. People can muster great energy at
Speaker 1: the start of things, and we're not always great at
Speaker 1: picturing our future selves. But one way to tell is
Speaker 1: if you start resenting and resisting for something to be sustainable,
Speaker 1: every time you do it needs to be simple and
Speaker 1: short enough that you don't feel much resistance. You are
Speaker 1: probably going to resent needing to write one thousand words
Speaker 1: in something every day if you are not getting paid
Speaker 1: to do it. Writing a hundred words, well that's nothing.
Speaker 1: That's the length of this paragraph. You can push hard
Speaker 1: and do anything for a bit, but not forever. You're
Speaker 1: generally better off. If you find a pace that is
Speaker 1: ambitious but sustainable for the long term, you will go further.
Speaker 1: People are going to feel better about the boss that
Speaker 1: reliably remembers their birthdays then the boss who one year
Speaker 1: writes elaborate letters to a quarter of her direct reports
Speaker 1: and forgets the rest. You are more likely to improve
Speaker 1: your health running three miles three times a week, then
Speaker 1: running nine miles one day, and then not running again
Speaker 1: for another month. Figure out what you can keep doing,
Speaker 1: and you will keep doing it. It really is as
Speaker 1: simple as that. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before for
Speaker 1: Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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