The Extra Mile Is for the Unexpected
Avoid burning out on your first day
The Promise
Whenever I hear someone say, “I’ll go the extra mile,” I literally roll my eyes so hard I can see my thoughts. There is this misconception that stating the willingness to “go the extra mile” will make wonders and fix all the issues in the world. It can’t be further from the truth. The statement artificially pumps up expectations and creates false illusions of grandeur without providing anything tangible.
What happens after expectations have been raised is even worse. People start going in at full speed, and by the end of the day, they feel like after an entire week of work. But it’s still the first day. So, what now? The second day can be pushed through, maybe even the third. But by the fourth and fifth day, you make more mistakes than the progress towards the goal. This means you promised an extra mile and just got two more to fix. Three extra miles of extra work for the same reward sounds like very bad business.
Don’t sabotage yourself
When you commit to anything, “the extra mile” is already included if you care enough. That mile is reserved for rare, special occasions that require you to do so. Let’s say you are a house builder. You always build within the budget and on time. Then you have a new project get delayed due to heavy rain conditions. Some structure is damaged, and some materials are lost. You can’t deliver on budget and on time, but you can decide to work an extra every day to reduce the time delay.
How much extra? It doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t negatively impact your work the next day.
The Practice
If something you are about to commit to changes and changes and changes, maybe you should take a step back and let the thing decide what is the expected outcome so you can plan how to get there. The practice varies the effort required, not what you do.
Complexity has a mystic effect around it. Nobody really understands all the pain points of complex things. So they agree that because it’s difficult to grasp, it has to be good. Far from reality. The sounds-good-approach will hit a wall as soon as something breaks, and nobody can make sense of it. The practice requires you to reduce everything to the barebones.
These are built or demolished one day at a time. You can either show up to do the necessary work and then enjoy the rest of the day. Or you can show up to try to do more. Maybe somedays you accomplish it, but end up wasted by the end of the day and on your way to burnout. The practice requires you to put in some effort, not all of it.
How to practice in sports
- Pick a method of training. I picked Kettlebells for myself.
- Pick the most simple exercises. For kettlebells, those are the swing, clean, press, squat, snatch and then get up.
- Plan your week in advance to make execution easier.
- Practice almost daily and do an active rest at least once a week.
I baked all those principles in the PowerBell app so you can easily practice kettlebells daily.
