I can comfortably go into any running race and be very confident that I am not going to win.  In the running world, I qualify as what is termed a Clydesdale.  Just think of a sleek thoroughbred compared to the solid Clydesdale, and you get the idea.  Well, about two weeks ago, I ran my third half marathon, and as usual, I was not realistically competing against the majority of the other 17,000 entrants.  Sure I wanted to beat as many as I could, but I was competing against myself or maybe my previous times.  As I was going into the last mile, I looked at my watch, and in order to hit my goal time, I had to pick up the pace.  In the end I finished where I wanted, but thought to myself, if I had been able to cut off 20 seconds by going a little faster at the end…

Why is that?  Why is it always a big push at the end?  Why don’t we have the same sense of urgency at the beginning or middle of a race, a project, a task, etc?  I can be as guilty as the rest, so I don’t have the answer, but isn’t it a good question?  Isn’t there some saying that goes, you can’t win the game in the beginning, but you can lose it (if there isn’t, there should be)?

I’ve talked before about passion in your work and being the driver of your work.  I think that is where this one comes in at.  It’s not that we are being lazy in the beginning and middle, but maybe too deliberate in our pace.  The start is not always a problem, that is when you are excited, motivated and full of energy.  Sometimes we even have to keep ourselves in check -   don’t get out of the gate too fast, don’t throw out too many new ideas.  Somewhere in there the excitement wanes, the pace slows and time unsuspectingly slips away.  The deadline starts to loom on the horizon and we say “Uh oh, let’s make a big push here at the end!”  Maybe you finish everything on time and it all works out, but maybe it’s too late and you don’t deliver what was expected or what you wanted.

All I’m saying is if we make it a point to run a nice steady race the whole time, then we can finish with a smile on our face.  We can be happy knowing that the only reason we sprinted at the end is because we wanted to, not because we had to.