dream | act | succeed

If you would google “the perfect way how to write a book“, I guess you can find multiple strategies and approaches. From just doing whatever you think is the right thing to do, to a more organized and structured approach. In life, there is never that one particular solution that does it all, but rather the other way around. You need to find the perfect solution for everything you are doing. Therefore, someone might just say: “Simply start and see where this is leading you towards. Just keep the momentum, it can’t be so difficult!”

THE KEY WORD? FINDING YOUR PACE!

Pace, a terminology that is widely used in the world of sports to define the average performance of an athlete in a certain discipline. Let’s take the most basic sport for example: Running.

You run 5 km sometimes in 20 minutes but sometimes in 30 minutes.
But in average you need 25 minutes for 5 km’s.
This makes 5 minutes for 1 km.
And that’s your pace!
5 minutes/km

But what do you do with that? Well, next time you are out there in the forest, practicing. You get back to your sport watch and check your pace. If you are running faster than the 5 minutes/km you are “overpacing“, meaning that you are running faster than your average and are actually practicing in a more effective zone, but of course getting more likely to overdo it, while you can “underpace” by spending more time for the same km and enjoying the wonderful view. Sure, sometimes we need to step over the line and sometimes not, but your pace is a good indicator that helps you to stay on course and actually perform in the way that you can perform.

With writing, there is of course no words per minute kind of an indicator we want, or actually need. But sure, there is still our unique pace we simply have these days. Meaning, that this is the way how you can perform in average while working on your projects.

Let’s take me for example, I write my blog posts in average in around 1h 30 minutes a day and after that working on my book or other projects I have. Meaning that I and my daily schedule got used to spend at least 2 hours writing every single day. Therefore, this would represent my current pace. I can continuously do that every single day without any effort.

Sure, sometimes I step over the line like I did yesterday and write for 3 hours in a row, but than there are other days like Mondays where I do not need too much time to post my weekly statistic.

So far so good, but where is the benefit from knowing your pace? The clear benefit is that you do not step over the line so often, causing a need for you to recover more than usual. Sure, you can write 10 hours straight, blasting out everything you have. But there is nothing won by spending 10 hours on your project today, when you will need at least a complete week to recover from this odyssey. It would have been better if you did not overpace, but instead stop after some effective 3 hours and get back to the project tomorrow or later on.

But sure, the pace isn’t everything. Like in sport or so many other fields in life, sometimes you need to get over your limits in order to improve. To grow stronger, to get out of the equation the performance you actually want or even need to have. Therefore, getting better in the sense of being able to focus longer on writing your stuff means to practice over your current pace and therefore increasing it little by little, step by step, day by day.

Whatever your current pace is, nobody said that this will be your pace forever. You can simply work on this and increase it day by day until your are satisfied with the outcome.

But why should I be more productive because of knowing my pace? As simple as that, because you win the battles in your head first before you win it on the battlefield itself. Sailing to a foreign Island and burning your ships downs before the fight will do what? Exactly, it will change your mindset! It will cause you to focus on winning this thing, because that is basically your only option. With knowing your pace it is the very same thing. You want to stop after 30 minutes? Well, what’s your pace? 2 hours? Well, then go back to work and get at least to your average performance level! But of course it works also on the other side of the extreme. You will simply know when it is enough. When you can stop working on your project and doing something else in order to do not overpace too much.

1. Figure out your current pace
2. Define the pace you want
3. Overpace in order to increase it
4. Reach at least your current pace when doing whatever you do

Believe it or not, but it is really that simple. Look at my daily blog writing project I have here. I simple have written something every single day for the last 421 days. At the beginning, writing two hours a day was hard of course! I simply wasn’t used to it! My pace wasn’t there. But these days, well, I have increased my pace and can now use it on multiple occasions. From working to writing to simply being productive.

Find your pace and life will become easier! I promise!

See you next time!