Pace yourself

Today as I went out for one of the first runs of the season I was reminded of an important principle.  I have a program that I followed last year that involves walking and running in short intervals throughout the run.  Since I thought I wasn’t in bad shape, I started with 2 minutes of brisk walking, 2 minutes running and then alternated 1 minute walking, 2 minutes running for the remainder of my run.  The only problem is that I had only run 3 times all winter and started running too hard so that I was quickly out of breath and thinking I might have to cut the run short.  Luckily I slowed down and was able to do a full run.  I started to pace myself better so I could do more over the long run.

Sometimes we do the same thing when striving for goals.  We have a list of actions and we push ourselves to do so much that we can’t keep it up, or worse, we don’t want to.  Even if you are starting a new business and you need to put in long hours to get things off the ground, you still need to balance it with the rest of your life, otherwise what’s the point.  You still need to spend time with your spouse and family, you still need exercise and yes, you even need some time to relax.  Pace yourself by keeping consistent steady action that moves you forward, but don’t burn yourself out, after all life is about the journey, not the destination.