A lesson from The Lord of the Rings: Go very very far by walking
I remember getting the Extended DVDs of The Lord of the Rings—anyway, in one of the making-of DVD specials, someone points out that Frodo and Sam and always walking left to right. Which was a pretty important distinction, because they walk a whole lot throughout the trilogy.
You’re better off with a walking mindset if you want to create something for the long term.
There are times for sprinting, but Frodo and Sam would have never made it if they tried to sprint the entire way from Hobbiton to Mordor.
You need rest, you need to hide, sometimes you need to fake die.
I’m sprinting on this project right now. All the posts in this series so far have been written on a Saturday afternoon. This is #5 so far. I have some momentum and I want to use it wisely.
But I know I won’t get to post #52 today. Or even #20. I can sense some slow down and I’m going to take that rest soon.
Maybe I’ll do 3 or 4 more tomorrow also, but I won’t keep that pace up. Eventually it’ll slow down to (hopefully) 1 a day. That’s sustainable.
I’ll do 20% with the initial sprint, but the rest will come in that walking pace.
Figure out when you can sprint, it’s useful. But if you have a longer goal, remember that you’ll cover most of the ground by walking.