Ep 479 | No Hurry, No Pause - Why Deliberate Progress is a lot More Fun

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So, uh, as we're into 2025, I am now training, training a little bit harder for some endurance events, some running events. I have coming up this year. And this past weekend, as I've been kind of ramping up the training, I had a little bit of a longer run to accomplish. So this past Saturday, I had to run a half marathon, 13.1 miles, which was just, again, part of my training plan. And the individual that's coaching me, that's drawn up my, my training plan, what he had said to me was, Brian, I want you to find what you deem to be your forever pace. So find a pace that you think you can run just forever. Now, of course, I can't run forever, but his point was find a pace that you can sustain. It's not too hard on you. You can breathe, your heart rate's not over, you know, too high, and you can go for an extended period of time. So don't go out there and try to break records. Don't go out there and try to go too hard. Just find that, that cruise control, that coast pace and stay at that. And so, I went out there on Saturday, just running, you know, outside on like a green belt, and I settled into a pace. And that pace for me is about a 9-minute and 15-second, 9-minute and 20-second mile. So, not slow, but not necessarily fast for me. I'm gonna guess many of you listening probably run a heck of a lot faster than that. Some of you maybe not, but 9:15, 9:20 is a good sustainable pace for me. Just if you want to get into the details, that's like, uh, you know, a 145, uh, beat per, uh, uh, per minute, like, uh, heart rate for me, 145. And that's a, that's a sustainable zone 2 for me, about 9:15, 9:20 pace. I took a look after I finished that run, by the way, which, which was about, uh, just over 2 hours. About 2 hours and 1 minute is how long it took me to, to run 13.1 miles. So just over 2 hours. I happen to, you know, when I got home, I, I was taking a look for whatever reason on some of the, the, the races that I'd run, specifically the half marathons I'd run, and wanted to see, gosh, what was my half marathon time when I was going as hard as I could, when I was really trying to push myself, when I was actually racing, at least racing myself. I'm not winning anything, but trying to beat my last, my last time. And what I found was that my best time ever is about an hour 52, hour 53. Where am I going with this whole thing? Well, an 8-minute and 45-second pace. So 30 seconds slower than what I was just running the other day is about an hour 55 half marathon. A 9:15 pace, what I was running just this past Saturday, is a 2 hour and 1 minute half marathon. A 6-minute difference between me on cruise control, just kind of coasting, running my forever pace, A 6-minute difference between that and me in race mode or close to it. Now, I was looking at that and just had to laugh because I enjoyed my run on Saturday. I was looking around, I was taking in the scenes, I was breathing, you know, just fine. My heart rate was good, you know, I was listening to music, I was listening to a podcast. A couple times I had to look down and changed some things up on my phone, then I had a snack. I mean, I enjoyed, I literally enjoyed the run. My heart rate never got over about 140, 145. But I know when I race and I'm going just 30 seconds per mile faster, I am focused, I am pushing it, I feel a little bit stressed, my body's under stress, my heart rate goes from about 140, 145 to about 155 to 160. So 20 beats higher. I have to remain focused. I'm not messing around with anything. Actually, I don't even listen to music or podcasts. I just go and I'm focused on the mission. The point I'm trying to make here is the difference between me coasting and having a good time but a sustainable pace versus me sprint— not sprinting, but going, pushing it as hard as I can over the course of a 2-hour race is 6 minutes. And it just really got me thinking how in life, how many times I am pushing it to the brink, I'm redlining it, but the reality is if I didn't do that and I scaled back just a slight bit, there's only a 6-minute difference and nobody cares. And it makes little to no difference in the grand scheme of things. In other words, I think that in many places in life, and not just in running, I am progressing, but that progress may not be sustainable. In other words, I think the discovery or the aha for me is that I don't need to rush to achieve my goals. I also shouldn't let inertia or hesitation hold me back but I don't need to rush to get to a goal. The goal on Saturday was 13.1 miles and to feel good about that. Now, it wasn't race mode, but that was the goal, and I got 13.1 miles and was not sore and felt good afterwards. On race day, I push way harder, save 6, 7, 8 minutes, achieve the goal, Maybe move a little bit faster, but what difference does it really make? In, in a race, it makes a big difference. But my point is, in life, where does this show up for me? Where else, uh, am I forcing things to occur versus maybe like water, letting water flow steadily over rocks, uh, or constantly over rocks? Where am I forcing progress where it's not sustainable? What I realized is it's, it's, it's important for me to focus on what's important, avoid distractions, take consistent action, but— and not delay. But most importantly, put one foot in front of the other. You know, it reminded me of something that Tim Ferriss discussed in his book, Tools of Titans. He actually had mentioned an individual named Derek Sivers. And Derek Sivers, a friend of his, had a great quote in there, or he has a great phrase, I think, that he came up with. And he uses the phrase, no hurry, no pause. No hurry, no pause. And what no hurry, no pause is all about, for Derek, it's a mindset. It's a principle that encourages steady, deliberate progress without rushing and without procrastination. So in other words, it's about maintaining a balanced rhythm in life or in work. And it's about moving forward with focus and intention, but without what Derek would say is frantic energy or frantic urgency, or even the opposite of that, stalling due to hesitation or overthinking. So no hurry. What does he mean when he says no hurry? Avoid rushing. Rushing can lead to mistakes. It can lead to stress. It can lead to burnout. Stay calm, stay in control, allow for clarity, allow for precision. And no pause. Remember the phrase is no hurry, no pause. No pause is don't procrastinate or stop unnecessarily. Keep moving forward. Even if the steps are small, just keep moving forward and maintain that momentum. Make certain momentum's never lost. Again, this phrase, this "no hurry, no pause," promotes sustainable progress. Like I was saying earlier, it's about not rushing to achieve your goals. Know what the objective is and enjoy the ride. And enjoy the ride. So I really, I mean, it was funny how I lived through this on Saturday And then like so many things, I realized, gosh, that really applies in a lot of places. Now, to be clear, on race day, 6, 7, 8 minutes matters. But most of the time we're not in a race. Most of the time we have an objective. And in business, for example, if it takes you, let's say, let's say 6 weeks to achieve something, but if you push hard and you rush and you, and you go, go, go, and you run risk of making a bad decision or, or you're inaccurate in whatever you're doing, but you do it in 5 weeks and 3 days versus the 6 weeks I mentioned earlier. Does it matter? More oftentimes than not, it doesn't. The ride would be more enjoyable and the success would be more sustainable if you just progressed one foot after the other and were not rushing. Instead, you took this no hurry, no pause approach. So the focusing question for you today, where are you hurrying or where are you pausing? And how could you implement this model, this mindset that I'm describing in your world today, such that in doing so, the ride is a lot more fun Everybody around you has a lot less stress, and ultimately you get to the same spot you would have been getting, just not pushing nearly as hard. It's a really good question to ask. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]