Jun 10
1
Sometimes knowing all the details can keep you from achieving your real goals and have you settle for something less.
I’ve heard it called paralysis by analysis. It’s very true and I know many people (including myself) who get caught up with it. You know what I mean; it is summed up in the classic old saying: ‘better safe than sorry’.
An excellent example of this happened to me recently.
A couple of months ago, my family and I decided we really wanted to be runners.
Enthusiastically, I went out and registered us in a local 5Km race two months down the road.
I also got the C25K iPhone app (great for interval training) to help train use using an interval plan called ‘Couch to 5Km’. It was great and we really needed it. As an office worker of 20+ years, I’d spend a bit too much time sitting than walking.
We started and kept up for a month, but then spring and after school activities soon pushed our training to the side and before we knew it there was only 2 weeks left to train. It had been a month since the last time we’d trained and we’d only gotten to week 4 of the 9 week training.
Clearly it was crunch time.
We tried week 5 and although it hurt a bit, we’d managed to complete it. With C25K, you don’t know how far you’ve gone; it is all based on time for endurance.
Two days before the race we ran 9 laps around the school yard which we’d estimated with google maps to be about 5.5 Km in total. A tough run, but we made it.
Finally race day was on us. We shared the road with almost 9,000 other people and it was great. Our first run and it was smooth running in the first half. At the 4Km mark, I was tired and my muscles started to complain a bit.
By the time we crossed the line, my legs were feeling the exertion but we were so pumped up and happy that we’d completed the race that after taking care of a few things and talking with a number of people, we jogged another half Km to the car.
The next day, my calves locked up on me and it seemed that all I could do was cycle or run; walking and going down stairs was out. Strange but true. It stayed with me for a couple of days and I wondered why? I’d run 5.5Km two days before the race without this problem, why now?
Several days after the race, I took a GPS based running app for the iPhone (Runmeter – I *highly* recommend) and ran the school yard. It was only 3Km!
A full 2 kilometers short! It certainly explains my calves.
Thinking on that, I’m glad I didn’t know until after the race. Realizing I’d only trained to half the 5Km race, I may have considered walking and taking short breaks to offset my lack of full and proper training.
In the end, I’d put in a far better effort and achieved more because I didn’t know all the details. It’s my firm belief that this is a great example of the difference between successful and not so successful people.
The successful people are more action driven.
It’s not that they don’t have a plan and simply go out and do things; they do plan and when it’s ‘good enough’ for execution, they execute.
By contrast, not so successul people, will be hesitant and flesh out more details than is required.
As in my experience above, you may feel a bit of pain, but it was well worth the ‘sacrifice’ to get the achievement. I would not have been as happy with my results had I taken it easy to offset the lack of training and instead I get to walk around knowing I can do 5Km and to be proud of that accomplishment. Well worth the discomfort of those calves!
