When you get excited about something, it’s easy to want to do it all the time.
Sometimes that’s exactly the wrong move.
I did this recently with running.
The weather was beautiful.
I love running.
So naturally, I wanted to run every day.
That was a mistake.
Before long, I was exhausted. Old aches and injuries started creeping back—my hip, my Achilles. My weight training suffered. Instead of getting stronger, I was digging myself into a hole.
I was overeager, and I paid the price.
Cool your jets.
One of the hardest lessons to learn is that more isn’t always better.
Your body doesn’t get stronger during the workout.
It gets stronger while it recovers.
The same is true for many areas of life.
When we discover a new business idea, new hobby, a new business idea, or a new passion, we often try to do too much, too soon.
We sprint.
We burn out.
Then we wonder why we lost our motivation.
Sometimes the smartest thing you can do isn’t to push harder.
It’s to pace yourself.
Put things in their proper place.
For me, running isn’t an everyday activity.
Two or three quality runs each week are enough to get faster, stay healthy, and actually enjoy the process.
The rest of the time, my body gets to recover, adapt, and come back stronger.
The lesson extends far beyond running.
Enthusiasm is powerful.
But without restraint, it can become self-defeating.
Cool your jets.
Slow down just enough that you can keep moving forward for a long, long time.