Twenty Day March

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, spoke at Catalyst last fall.  He talked about two teams who were seeking to be the first to reach the South Pole.  One group aggressively moved forward when the weather was good, but stayed in camp when the weather was bad.

The second group only marched about 20 miles every day, in good weather and bad.  They missed lots of opportunities to cover great distances, when they could have traveled more than 20 miles.  They also pushed ahead, even when conditions were not favorable.

The result was that the first team perished, the second team achieved their goal.

The moral of the story:  push hard every day to do those things that advance your goals.  Do it every day, in good weather and bad.  Don't over do it when you can.  Don't indulge your laziness when you don't feel like working.

Author Daniel Steele has a similar work ethic.  She pushes herself to write every day.  Her idea is that if you write 300 pages and only have 85 good ones, you still have accomplished meaningful work.  And she has dozens of best-selling novels to show for it.

What's your twenty mile march?  Are you moving ahead today?