Here’s a reminder of the source article that got me started on this topic.

Triathletes, as a demographic, share an attraction to Big Jobs. I can remember the first time I ever heard about an Olympic distance race… “You swim a mile, then ride 25 miles then run 10K. That’s insane!” My work colleague that was telling me about the race said that he had a buddy that was training for a triathlon who would do three sports in a day and train for more than two hours on the weekend! Clearly a nutter…

I share that conversation to remind myself, and you, that what we take for “normal” in our athletic lives is far from normal in our society. However, as Michener notes in his article, if you want to achieve something difficult then you’ll need to set your life up to do a heck of a lot of work. As well, a comfortable life is rarely a productive one — a certain enjoyment of discomfort, or effort, is required to tackle the really Big Jobs.

…but does meaningful achievement require a massive investment of time and energy?

BIG is a fundamental part of the culture in America. I often ask myself if BIG leads to more satisfaction? I ask the question of myself when I consider taking on a new project as well as when I review what I have really achieved so far.

Here are the questions that I consider:

• What are the successes in my life?
• What do I have that’s truly useful?
• How do I spend most days?

The first question is open and your reaction will give you an insight into your values. Initially, I list a lot of material and external achievements. Once I get my socio-economic programming out of my system, I come to more qualitative items:

• Monica once bragged about me to her friends
• I turned my health around in my 30s
• I see myself as an athlete
• I have tremendous freedom and flexibility

The points above flowed after I asked myself the second question — what do I have right now that’s actually useful?

• Fitness
• Freedom
• Health
• Companionship
• Personal Safety
• Writing Skills
• Numeracy

The seven assets above are far more useful than numbers in a bank account; past promotions; honors and degrees; houses and completed transactions (that’s my ego list from the first wave of successes).

Interestingly, for me at least, my triathlon successes didn’t even hit my consciousness until later and only because I noted that they were missing. I’m a guy that likes to train and likes to do things right — cross that with my inherent ability and that’s where athletic success came from. When that passed (or passes), I hope to be left with fitness, freedom and health. All of which are enhanced by a bicycle!

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Recently, we had Jan Olav visit from Norway. After living with me for over a week, he asked me what I do all day and that gave me a huge laugh! I told him that across his two week camp he was seeing every facet of my life — an athletic life with a flexible work schedule with bursts of productivity as well as lots of short “sprints” where I keep things balanced between my focus days.

So what’s the point of all this?

Take inventory of your values, your productivity and your existing schedule. The best athletes that I know are chronically under-scheduled — they never miss their training because that’s all they’ve got to do. Busy people don’t get stuff done! Perhaps more accurately, effective work flows from the periods where I have space in my life. To get more done: create space for productive work.

I’ll give you some practical examples from my own life:

Health and fitness: I used this tactic many times from 1993 to 2004. I moved away from my peer group and freed up all the time in my week that I used to spend with them. I filled that time with the change that I wanted to create (walking, then triathlon, then elite triathlon). Many people would say that it’s not possible to move away — it isn’t easy but my results were not typical either. I think I still hold a top 10 (all time) result for Ironman Canada.

Writing: Whether it has been isolation from a girlfriend; a creativity program in The Artist’s Way; or emailing Monica… I’ve been writing a lot, for a long time. Like my sport, I don’t write because I want anything from it. I write because I like to get things out of my head. In the Michener article he talks about how to write a book (research, lack of distraction, write before other activities, write daily). His protocol is exactly what I used when I wrote Going Long. If you aspire to write a book then I’d recommend that you create the space, then protect the space and write daily. Again, simple but not easy. I just checked Amazon and Going Long is #8 in their ranking of triathlon books. That was a useful project!

Freedom: The final example is the greatest leap of faith of all. Today, I have a fantastic job with peers that I respect. Endurance Corner is the result of a decision 10 years ago to leave the “best” job that I would ever have because it was draining my spirit to look out the window and know what I wasn’t doing. I had no plans, very limited athletic knowledge and zero track record in athletic excellence. However, I knew what I liked and made space to fill my life with a lot more of that.

Create space; create a reasonable plan; and choose goals that require a lot of what you like to do.