What is personal “average speed” and how does it affect our lives

What is "average speed"

I have a friend named Nathan Barry. He recently wrote three books in just nine months. How? With one simple strategy - write 1,000 words a day, which is about 2-3 pages. He did this for 253 consecutive days.

Now compare his strategy with the typical image of a writer who locks himself in a cabin in the woods for several weeks and writes a book like a madman. Such a maniac writer works at "top speed" - 20, maybe 30 pages a day. But after several weeks of such a crazy "marathon" there are two scenarios for the development of events - either the work on the book will end, or the moral strength of the author.

In comparison, Nathan's "top speed" has never reached the level of a crazy writer from a cabin in the woods. However, over the course of a year or two, my friend's "average speed" was much higher.

This principle can be applied to more than just writing. For example, anyone can feel a surge of inspiration, go to the gym and work out there once. This is "maximum speed". We attach too much importance to it and literally obsess over it. How hard was the training? What's with the motivation? How fast were the exercises?

But what if you try to calculate the averages for the last month? How many days did you train? And if you take the last three months? Or a year? What was your "average speed"?

One has only to look at the situation from this angle, and it immediately turns out that at first you were sick for a week, then you missed workout due to fatigue, and then generally went on a business trip. As a result, you realize that your "maximum speed" is sometimes high, but your "average" is much lower than it seems.

In my experience, this principle is true for any area of ​​life, including habits related to work, food, or relationships.

Surprising fact about "medium speed": it allows you to quickly achieve success.

We very often waste time and energy thinking that it is necessary to make a gigantic effort in order to achieve something significant. We tell ourselves that we need to stock up on motivation and desire. We think it's important to work harder than others.

But look at people who are moving forward and making progress, and you will see a different trend. Nathan wrote 1,000 words every day. And what happened nine months later? He wrote three books. However, he never tried to work more than others. After all, writing 2-3 pages a day is far from a shocking performance metric. My friend was simply more consistent than the rest, and his "average speed" over those 253 days was much faster than most.

How to increase "average speed"

I was recently told about the idea of ​​a “prom for habits.” It consists in completing one current habit and rising to a higher level. In general, this tactic is needed to improve the "average speed".

Here are some examples:

• If your “average speed” is three healthy meals a week, you can “break out” of it with the new habit of eating one healthy meal every day.
• If your “average speed” is two workouts per month, bring them up to one per week.
• If you have a crazy job and only talk to old friends once every three months, it's time to include calls in your calendar and increase your "average rate" to conversations every month.

I'm sure you get the idea. Habit prom is about evaluating your goals and your average speed and thinking about how you can improve your performance with repetitive actions and habits.

I thought about how to apply this method in my life. For the past eight months, I've been posting new articles every Monday and Thursday. How to get out of this habits? You can use Nathan's strategy and write 1,000 words a day. This will allow me not only to continue to publish two articles a week, but also to work on other things, say, start work on a book.

When it comes to habits, each of us has a different “average speed”. And to be honest, it is usually much lower than we would like. The truth is, it’s easy for us to motivate ourselves and push ourselves into action for a day. But to keep this motivation and make consistent efforts every week, few people can do it.

But do not judge or blame yourself for the low "average speed". The main thing is to understand what is happening and to realize that you are able to control it. And then come to terms with the fact that only small but consistent changes in daily habits can correct your “average speed”. Huge efforts are not needed - only consistency is important.