I listened to Episode 439 of the Tim Ferriss Show today while picking up a Facebook Marketplace purchase. Tim Ferriss has been my rock through the uncertainties of the lockdown. His massively important interviews have reminded me of the necessity to respond instead of emotionally react in challenging situations. This episode featured excerpts from his bestselling book I’ve yet to read, Tools of Titans, now available on audible.
The excerpt featured was Derek Sivers’ profile. Sivers founded CDBaby and Hostbaby and is a successful music producer, among other things. But the thing that struck me was his story about 45 minutes.
He likes to bike and this one trail near his home was the go-to spot. As American capitalism teaches, when he hit the trail he went max effort. He pedaled fast, was red in the face, and finished, exhausted, in about 43 minutes. After months of this practice, he began dreading the trail because it meant pain and misery.
But one day he decided to relax, to pedal slow and enjoy the view. He noticed trees and vistas he never saw before. The ride was easy and fun, and he felt energized the entire time. He rediscovered his love for biking, his enthusiasm for the trail. As he finished, he looked down at his watch: 45 minutes.
All of that extra effort, exhaustion, and misery for a two minute faster ride.
So many hard lessons came flooding back to me. I’ve been there before and I’ve done that before. I love running but recently it’s felt like a chore. It’s been difficult to stay motivated and tough to finish a run without extended stops along the way. But after hearing Sivers’ story, I put the theory to test.
I went out for a run and said I would run for an hour without looking at my pace. I ran for exactly an hour. 8.07 miles. 7:26 mile/minute pace, only 6 seconds slower than when I’ve been running all-out and stopping every mile and a half.
Sometimes, going slow is going fast. Sometimes fast is overrated and enjoying the run is more important than the pace.
This time I won’t forget. 45 minutes. Slow. Down. Thanks, Sivers.