The Subtle Art of Daily Growth: Navigating Effort and Ease

I was a competitive runner in high school. My coach said something to me that got embedded in my mind; great runners never miss a day. Ankle is sore? Get out for the run. Tired? Get out for the run. Busy day ahead? Get up insanely early and… get out for the run. The mantra was a tool to combat making an excuse for myself.

A few years later, my college coach, Mick Byrne, had more nuanced wisdom. He would say “get your miles in.” This mirrored what my high school coach had taught me. However, he added “if you miss a day, it’s just a day.” He knew better than anyone that we were walking a tightrope with injury lurking on one side and suboptimal fitness on the other. 

Seemingly conflicting on the surface level, the dual heuristic forced me to use my judgment. It allowed me to learn how to train effectively. It was more than someone simply telling me what to do. Did it work? My college running career was pretty good. I hung in there with a cross country team that finished 4th at the D1 NCAA Championships. I ran a 4:11 mile, sub 15:00 minute 5k, and 9:02 3k steeplechase. It was Ok. But the value really accumulated post college.

In 2013, I ran a 2:22 marathon. To my knowledge, that’s still in the top 1% of marathon finishing times (according to Athlinks.com). Finding the balance between missing a day and never missing a day was a critical piece of the success. I believe the value of this philosophy goes beyond running. It has helped me, too, with relationships, career, and personal growth.

When I think about habit-tracking systems, I have a discouraging mental image where someone enters a habit, tries it for a few days, misses a few times, and gives up. There’s no judgment building, no reflection, no learning process. What you really want is to learn how to grow effectively. If you can figure that out, you can achieve anything you want. Finding the right behaviors at the right time for the right individual is the golden ticket we are looking for. I’ve built that philosophy into Slow Velocity. It’s not “set it and forget it.” On the contrary, it’s a continuous engagement where you discover the perfect balance.

For example, one common life hack that spams the internet is you must wake up early. If you wake up early, you can finish that course or that side project. This works for many people. However, if you add this to your list of behaviors and fail to achieve it 10 days in a row, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to give up on the goal. You need to try another behavior. Maybe it’s ‘watch 1 course video during lunch’ or ‘write 1 sentence on why this course matters.’ The faster you realize this, the better. This is why count of behaviors changed (added, deleted, updated) is a core KPI on Slow Velocity. 

I don’t see Slow Velocity as a habit tracker. I see it as a behavior discovery tool that helps me learn to grow effectively. The goal is not simply to check the boxes every day. The goal is to be aware of the things that I am doing. The goal is to discover the behaviors that help you move one step closer, every day, to the person you want to be.