It’s two and a half months now since I resumed my old lifestyle in which, unless it’s totally unavoidable, I run every single day. Today I ran for an hour and ten minutes… Right now I’m aiming at increasing the distance I run so speed is less of an issue. As long as I can run a certain distance, that’s all I care about. Sometimes I run fast when I feel like it, but if I increase the pace I shorten the amount of time I run, the point being to let the exhillaration I feel at the end of each run carry me over to the next day.
This is the same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel. I stop every day right at the point where I feel I can write more. Do that, and the next day’s work goes surprisingly smoothly. I think Ernest Hemmingway did something like that. To keep on going, you have to keep up the rhythm. This is the important thing for long-term projects. Once you set the pace, the rest will follow. The problem is getting the flywheel to spin at a set speed, and to get to that point takes as much concentration and effort as you can manage.
Haruki Murakami – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a wonderful book. Highly recommended.
See also:
Daily
Cohort (2): Seth Godin on Peers and Practice
Taking Action as habit