If You Want to Succeed, Then Slow Down
“It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” — Mark Hunter
This is Part 2 to Episode 1.
My whole life, I've struggled with sprinting through and, inevitably, killing my newly found passions, instead of slowing down and embracing the long, slow journey of learning. This episode tells, in story, how the fast, obsessive method of passion-based learning will fry your brain's computer every time. Maybe there's a better strategy to long-term success.
CREDITS:
Podcast Creator: Jordan Taylor
Matt D’Avella's YouTube video about the journey to the South Pole.
TRANSCRIPT:
Just a heads up, this is kind of a part 2 to episode 1, so listen to that first if you haven’t already. Link in the show notes.
My name is Jordan Taylor, and welcome to the If Then Podcast. Our brains our a conglomerate of if/then statements, like in computer code, and oftentimes new lines of code are hard to write in our mind when we’re trying new things, for example if I want to play piano, then I need to read music. Sitting down and coding that particular if then statement could take years of dedication, but when we do sit down and create new then statements for a complicated if, it feels freaking amazing. This podcast is your weekly motivation, and mine, to get uncomfortable and write some neurological code.
“It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” — Mark Hunter
After episode 1 of If Then, we all started to walk. We all embarked on our own personal journeys to find the ocean, with no understanding of where it was or which way to go, but realizing the importance of just choosing a direction, without having any frame of reference, and just moving. Logically, in so doing, we’ll ALWAYS eventually hit the ocean, no matter which way we turn. Maybe initially we were a mile from the beach without knowing, and started walking in the opposite direction, all the way through the middle east and asia, only hitting the East China Sea years later. But who cares, I argued in episode 1? At least we got there. We’ll always get there if we just start walking. Well, what I realized this week on my journey, is that that’s not the full story. There’s more to this dangerous adventure than I led on.
See on my own personal route to the ocean, I realized that I had a serious, serious problem—a problem that left me withered, injured, cracked… and I was worried it might get even worse.
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“Alright, do I have everything? Water, backpack, Phone. Check, check, check.”
*Phone beeps signifying video recording*
“Alright, Day 1 of my journey to the ocean. I’m not sure which way to go, but that’s not the point. I’m just gonna start walking, and I’ll have to find it. That’s the beauty. So I’ll pick this way. Here we go.”
*Phone beeps again. Recording stops. Phone keyboard typing*
“Post…toooo Instagram. And the journey beeegins.”
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The day I started was a beautiful day, conditions pristine. A mindset recharged. After all, I listened to the first episode of If Then, and I mean it was pretty good. I even gave it a 5 star review AND shared about it on Instagram to maybe win those AirPods at the end of May. I heard listeners already won free audiobooks. That would be cool too. That first day, I walked 35 miles. I wanted to get to the ocean as fast as possible, so I pushed as hard as possible. And I was amazed with how much a new mindset could push me to do something so noteworthy. Something I’d never in my wildest dreams imagine I could do. Well over a marathon in one day. This new mindset I carried with me, it was somethin’ special.
———
*Crickets*
*Phone record beep*
“35 miles in one day. Anything is possible. If I can do it, you can too! Get out there and crush those miles.”
*Phone beep*
“Aaaand post.”
“Alright, set up camp.”
*Wood drop* *Fire strike*
*Groans* “My feet are sore…”
———
The next day I woke up, and it was surprisingly scorching for that time of year. And I was even more sore than I thought I’d be after a good nights sleep. I reflected on how I had just walked 35 miles the day before which is pretty insane, I mean, not many people have even tried that. I made so much ground that it was totally acceptable to rest my body up for the next big push the next day. The weather forecast seemed to be favorable then too, which would help with my next big goal.
———
“I wonder if I can go 40 miles tomorrow. *Groans* My leg’s still sore, but this isn’t supposed to be easy, ehhhh I think I can do it. Gotta keep moving. Get there as fast as I can.”
———
Morning came, perfect conditions as promised. I actually woke up at 5:00 AM to get an early start—I was sure to post about that too, and accomplished my goal: 40 miles—an impressive feat. My achilles started to ache around mile 35 though, but..I mean, I had to get 40. So I rested for a day or two. Alright it was five, but I had made some good progress, and the rain had also settled in, so the timing honestly couldn’t be better.
———
*Phone picture takes*
*Typing*
“75 miles down. Push through the pain and anything can be achieved.”
*Beeping sound signifying posting*
“Ouch, my feet. I didn’t know they could blister like that. *exhales as sits* I’m really gonna have to take a break. Wow… I’ll rest up and then try hit it hard again next week.”
———
I was surprised and a little embarrassed with how exhausted and beat down I was when the sun rose, not just physically, but mentally as well after just a week of walking.
———
*Tent rustles as Jordan exits and grunts*
“Yeah…not walking today, or most likely tomorrow.”
———
How many more hundreds of weeks will this go on? How many years could potentially go by? I honestly feel… kinda terrible and this is only week 2. Like, what?
I found myself resting on the hot days, by a fire on the cold days, and under a tarp on the rainy days. Every step a dull pain, and so I could hardly be blamed for the lull in pace. Very few days were spring like perfection, and so very few days had forward progress. On the perfect days, then, I found myself sprinting, traveling all day all out with an urgency built up from days of idling.
———
*Jordan breathing heavy. Trying to pull it together to film. Phone record beeps*
“35 miles again today. Big, big push. Follow your dreams and you can do big things too.”
*Phone beep. Then typing. Sound of post goes through while Jordan still breathes heavy*
“Where is it? Maybe I got lucky and picked the close route. That’s all I can hope. That’s all I can hope.”
———
A month went by. And then another. And then another. And then hills formed and flattened. Those were hard enough. And then… are those mountains in the distance? My legs ached more than I thought possible.
Mentally, being out in the elements day in and day out with injuries and such little promise of any sign of an ocean was debilitating. And then the mountain. And then it got serious.
I sat at base camp for two weeks in the shade of the peaks. The shadows cast matched my darkened spirits. Trying everything to heal and recover my legs, feet, my entire body. I just needed one week of perfect conditions to get over the top. Everyday it rained and I sat, I just had the hope “Tomorrow will be better” as the rain pelted the tarp. Another post to Instagram. I wonder why I only got a few likes on that one. Does no one care I’m out here anymore, doing what they won’t even try? Then the morning came, and the mud took over, but it had been too long, and I just had to start no matter what. This was getting ridiculous. I got up and trudged. After a few sinking steps, I paused, my boots slurped from the sticky mud as my feet sank—my backpack shifted.
———
“hhhhh….Tomorrow will be better.”
———
I backtracked. Setup camp. The phone again. Another post. More likes this time. Good. They do care. Another night fell. Another day under the looming mountain. “Tomorrow will be better.” Late morning came. I woke up.
———
“Why does it keep being so cold? It’s not even that late in the year, and it’s still a little wet. I really don’t want to get sick. Like, not now. Tomorrow will be better.”
*Phone picture takes*
*Typing*
“Take some time today for your mental health. Today is dedicated to marshmallows and recovery.”
*Beeping sound signifying posting*
“Wait, is that Jeremy? We left at the same time, how did he—-how did Jeremy get to the ocean so fast??? What??? No…wait he really did. That makes no sense. I saw his posts, I was waking up earlier, I was pushing harder. Like seriously harder. This is ridiculous. Guh…so st—that’s so dumb.”
———
Camp. Another fire. Another post. An Instagram story. Not many views. They don’t care. This is probably all just stupid. Then the next day comes. Wait…there’s a nice breeze. The first in weeks. Wow, perfect temperatures. Perfect… everything! Maybe I can do this. I think I can make it over the top.
———
“This is it. This is the day I’ve wanted. Finally! Here we go.”
*Phone record beep as Jordan walks*
"Alright, it’s the BIG day, starting the big climb. What mountain in your life do you need to climb? We all have one. Send me a message with what yours is and then just star—”
*Trips and falls while walking*
"OWW!!! owww my ANKLE! THIS IS STUPID!!!! I’M DONE! I CAN’T DO IT ANYMORE! I’m done. I quit.”
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And I really did. I quit that day. And can you blame me? I broke my ankle. Like I physically couldn’t walk. I couldn’t take another step even if I tried. It would be smart to go on. After 3 months, and not as many miles as I had hoped, I slunk home.
It’s understandable, but the hard thing to suggest to someone at that point, is that maybe it was their own fault, and not anything else—not the weather, mud, the fall, just yours. Maybe I should have taken a different approach altogether from the very first day, and then none of that would have mattered or happened.
I heard a story last month about the men who raced to the south pole on Matt DUHvella’s YouTube video “The problem with most productivity advice.” There were two groups who wanted to be the first humans to ever reach the South Pole. One group’s strategy was exactly mine, As Greg Mckeown put it in that video quote “they walked with an insecure overachiever approach…. They would walk all out on the good weather days, and then on the bad weather days be so exhausted they would make no progress at all and felt the psychological burden of not making even an inch of progress forward.” Sometimes they would travel as much as 50 miles in a day. The other group took the exact opposite approach. They did the thing honestly harder to do. They limited themselves. They committed to 15 miles a day every single day no matter the conditions, no matter what the moral, no matter anything. On bad days, 15 miles. But more notably, on good days, they would simply walk 15 miles even if they felt fresh and could go further. They purposefully held a consistent sustainable pace. For the first group, the fastest way, in their mind, was to go all out every single good weather day. They complained and complained about the situation and the weather all while the other team, slow and steady, progressed daily. 15 miles no matter what, they kept that steady pace. In the end, what happened? Well, they got there 30 days ahead of the insecure overachievers and all even safely made the long journey home. Mckeown points out how the biographer miraculously described them: Quote“They progressed every day without particular effort.” Unquote. One of the hardest tasks humans had ever done in history, done “without particular effort.” Meanwhile the other team? They tragically died from their effort.
Recently I’ve come to grips with the fact of why all my hobbies seem to die in the tundra—on the journey. Every single time I get into something new and begin the long process of writing new if then statements in the computer of my brain, I go all out. I get impatient. I overachieve. 24/7 it’s all I think about. Literally, it’s all I do. I write huge neurological programs in an incredibly short amount of time, like Neo learning kung fu, more code than most people would be willing to write in that span, and I take pride in that. But then predictably… my computer fries from the workload and burns up, and the people I thought I was better then, slowly pass up my programs with more lengthy, advanced, clean pieces of working code in their minds. And I never finish my program. I never reach my ocean while they’re all on the sand.
I don’t want to make the same mistake again. My newest venture is what your listening to. This podcast. And I’ve been actively working to slow down. To pace myself. To find my 15 miles a day, and slowly chip away. Consistently. Sustainably. And I think I really found something that works incredibly well. Next week I’m excited to share that secret strategy I’ve been following to get a ton done without burning out all while leading a very tight schedule.
So I’ll leave you with this: “It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” — Mark Hunter
Thank you so much for listening to the third episode of the If Then Podcast. If you have feedback you want to give me or if you have anything you want to say, email me at contact@ifthenpodcast.com. And if you would, leave me a 5 star review if you found this podcast valuable. It really helps the podcast to get seen by other people like yourself. We reached #26 for Education on all of Spotify, and I have you to thank for that. We’re almost at 200 reviews on Apple Podcasts and 300 on Spotify. And as an extra bonus, for those of you who help me spread the word, I’ve been giving away 2 free 1 month Audible gift cards every week this May. Last week, Tabita and Johnathan won a free credit for an audiobook of their choice + access to their Plus catalog which includes thousands of audiobooks with no credits needed. And if you win this week, don’t worry the gift card is available to you even if you already have an Audible account. All you have to do to enter to win is take a screenshot of this podcast and share it on your Instagram while tagging the account @ifthenpodcast in the post or story. If you shared the last episode, you can also share this one too to be entered to win again. And, also, be sure to follow @ifthenpodcast on Instagram to find out if you’re the winner this week. If we get 100 shares by the end of the month, each of you will be entered to win a pair of AirPods. We’re over half way there, so keep sharing! Thank you so much for listening, my name is Jordan Taylor, and what if/then will you write today?
