April 11, 2024 • 11 mins
Whoops, I stumbled! I admit, my commitment to our bi-monthly podcast episodes took a hit, and I owe you an explanation. So here it is, no frills attached—I let laziness win and wrestled with some shiny new podcasting gear that threw me for a loop. But like a phoenix, we're rising from the ashes with a fresh start and crisp audio that'll be music to your ears. Today's episode is short but impactful, as we tackle the '20 Mile March' and the astonishing strength found in steadfastness—a message I often evangelize but need to practice more in my writing life.
Now, let's gather around the proverbial campfire as I dish out a concentrated burst of motivation for your daily grind. Whether you're mid-commute, sipping that morning cup of Joe, or pounding the treadmill, this episode is tailored to slide right into your routine and leave you charged without feeling overloaded. We'll explore how even the modest act of writing 500 words daily can snowball into something monumental. No guests joining us this round—it's just me, you, and some real talk about persistence and the magic it works on our goals. So, ready your headphones for a potent dose of inspiration—it's time we march those 20 miles together.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Inc Invite
Podcasts.
Now I've been a little naughty,honestly.
If you recall, I said I wasgoing to be doing two podcast
episodes a month and two blogs amonth.
Now I've been doing well withthe blogs, but you might have
noticed that there was only oneepisode last month, and that's
for a variety of reasons.
For one, I was lazy.
(00:20):
I'm going to be completelyhonest, no need to sugarcoat it.
I was pretty lazy.
For two, I got a bunch ofpodcasting equipment that was
lent to me by my brother, as henow rents out of space for his
own podcast and he has no needfor this.
Still amazing equipment.
So, going forward, as long asI'm able to hold on to it, the
quality of my voice even thoughthis smaller microphone I got
(00:43):
now is really good and I use itfor most of my stuff like gaming
, video and streaming For thepodcast, my voice should sound
really good.
We're gonna see how it goes,but that's one of the reasons
why I took a little bit.
I redid this episode 50 timesbecause I was learning how the,
the, the giant like stream deckthing worked and I was trying to
figure out how the headphonesworked all this stuff and I kept
(01:09):
redoing it and for some reasonmy heart just wasn't in it at
the time, like I just I hated it.
I thought I was rushing, Ithought it sounded horrible and
it just didn't really feel likea good episode.
And I did do a complete episode, like I recorded the whole
thing and I was going to uploadit and then when I went to
extract the audio from the microUSD to my laptop, I noticed
that the file wouldn't open.
So I'm like, all right, well, Iguess the universe made that
(01:30):
decision for me, so I'm going totry again.
We're going to give it anothertry.
Today we're going to be talkingvery, very briefly about the
concept of the 20 mile march andthe power of consistency that
I'm always talking about at alltimes.
Now it's going to be a reallyshort episode.
I'm just going to preface thatnow because every time I
(01:50):
recorded it previously it wassuper quick.
So, like the nature of thispodcast to anyone who is new, or
I should say, I do really shortepisodes when it's just me
talking talking about like 15,20 minutes, maybe less than that
.
That is developed specificallyfor you to like maybe enjoy it
(02:11):
with coffee in the morning orduring a morning drive or
exercising or whatever.
But we also have longer formepisodes with a guest that are
your normal hour, 45, two hours,hour and a half length podcast.
So all of the short episodesare meant to get right into the
meat and potatoes, right intothe key points of whatever I'm
(02:31):
talking about.
So, while you get a really goodservice level view, the 20
minutes isn't enough to covercertain topics that might be a
little bit more complex.
Now, this one really isn't toosuper complex and I think you
can get everything you need toout of it from just this episode
.
But there's a lot of literatureabout this and it's a really
powerful concept that canbenefit you greatly if you're
(02:52):
able to incorporate it into yourdaily life.
So we all know the frequentreturners to the show and maybe
to frequent readers of my blog Italk a lot about consistency
(03:17):
and how important it is.
Now I really should take my ownadvice in certain aspects, like
with my writing, butconsistency is an unbelievably
powerful ability just to keepshowing up to what you love and
keep marching towards your goaland your career.
And if you want a deeper diveinto that and a more elaborate
(03:38):
conversation, check out episodefive, which is the talk about
writing tips, I believe, andneuroplasticity and just some
things that's true about writingand something that are false
and some tips that aren't goodto listen to.
So if you want a really goodconversation about it, check
that episode out.
But we really talk a lot abouthabit building and, just to use
(03:59):
one really quick example that Italked about, I always use
writing, so we're just gonnastick with writing.
If you are a writer and you'restruggling to work on your book,
your short story, your poem,maybe you can only write 500
words, like I could.
I can only write 500 words inmy project yesterday and I was
beating myself up about it.
But point in being, if you onlywrite 500 words, as long as you
(04:21):
show up the next day at thesame time or relatively close to
the same time and continuewriting, and maybe you get 500
again, maybe a little bit less,maybe a little bit more, but the
point is that you showed upagain and you picked up the pen
or you started typing away onthe keyboard again.
Now, if you multiply that bywhatever number you want keep
showing up every day that 500 isnot going to feel like 500.
It's going to feel like 500 did.
(04:42):
Like you know, 500 is justgoing to be exponentially
compounding.
Maybe you start to write athousand words and then that
starts to feel really easy andthen you start to write.
If you're writing 2000 words ina session, just good job,
really good job.
I can't even fathom that.
It's the point being, the moreyou show up to what you're doing
(05:06):
, the easier it will become andthe faster you'll get at it.
So that's really one examplethat I use quite frequently.
But how does that relate to thisconcept of the 20 mile march?
Well, the 20 mile march is justone building block of
consistency and the 20 milemarch is like the ultimate form
of consistency.
Now, before I tell you thefounding story of the 20 mile
(05:29):
march, I suppose it would beprudent to know where I heard it
from.
My brother passed it down to mefrom his leadership mentor at,
I think, cornell, and it reallyresonated with me when I first
heard it and I kind of combinedit with, like I said,
consistency.
But the story of the 20 MileMarch is a concept from Jim
(05:49):
Collins' book Great by Choicethat describes the difference in
strategy between two teams ofexplorers in 1911's race to the
South Pole.
One team, led by RonaldAmundensen, covered 20 miles a
day, no matter the weather,while the other team, led by
Robert Falcon Scott, tookadvantage of good weather to
(06:10):
march 40 to 60 miles, thenrested in their tents when the
weather was bad.
Amundsen's team reached theSouth Pole first, while Scott's
team perished on their returnjourney, 11 miles short of a
vital supply depot.
It's a pretty intense story,right?
I thought so when I first heardit.
Now, to me, when I heard it,that kind of sounds like
(06:34):
consistency, and the 20 milemarch is a steady march to
success.
Consistency is important.
It's really good that you showup every day, but this concept
kind of flips it on its head alittle bit.
It's important to show up everysingle day to do what you love,
but you have to stay consistentwith what you're doing every
single day.
So to be devil's advocate andplay both sides about my writing
(06:57):
example, if you show up and youwrite 500 words every single
day, it starts to get reallyeasy.
So you do 1000, it starts toget really easy to 1500.
Pair that with this concept.
It actually seems like youshouldn't do that.
It seems that you should stickwith doing 500 every single time
you write.
That is what you should do,it's ideal, it's a dichotomy to
(07:17):
balance.
It's always good that you havethe passion to want to do more
of what you love say writing2,000 words but that can lead to
burnout and you might pushreally far in your novel.
You might get an extra chapterdone in that sitting.
But now all of a sudden, forexample when in Antarctica the
weather gets bad and that teampaused and waited out in their
(07:40):
tents until the weather gotbetter, you might experience
burnout from what you love.
And the more time that you sitin burnout, the less time you're
getting closer to your careergoal or finishing what you love
making that game, finishing thatbook, finishing that poem.
Now it can be really good thatyou have those bursts of
motivation to do more of your20-mile march and that's great.
(08:01):
Never suppress that.
But, like I said, it could leadto burnout if you really do
that 40-mile march, like the oneteam did and remember they died
really close to their supplydepot because they were pushing
too far and then waiting toolong.
But it could be even harder toshow up and do your 20 mile
march when you have absolutelyno motivation or passion to that
day, you have no will to do it.
(08:23):
But in often times it'sactually the most rewarding when
you show up when you don't wantto do it.
Then you're gaining the mostgrowth and then you're still
building that habit at the sametime.
So, even if you don't feel likedoing it, doing your 20 mile
march at the minimum isrewarding Consistency, and the
20 mile march is a steady marchto success.
(08:46):
You can overtake anyone.
The streamer that streams dailyand for hours gets burnt out.
The writer who writes as muchas they can when they feel like
it loses inspiration.
The artist who never stopsdrawing as they can when they
feel like it loses inspiration.
The artist who never stopsdrawing loses faith in their art
.
Keep on the 20 mile march.
Be like a Mundenson, not Robert.
(09:07):
Don't overextend because youcan feel like you can do it that
day.
Keep the same pace.
And for the streaming bit ofthat, I feel like I could speak
on it a little bit more Now thatI've been streaming for about
three and a half months.
When I started I wasn't surewhat my guidelines were, what my
roadmap is, what my goals were,and I would sometimes do really
(09:28):
long five hour streams, evenone or two sixers in there, and
then I realized I would getburnt out after I did that and
maybe I wouldn't have my streamschedule be consistent.
That's another big thing.
Once I had a consistentstreaming schedule and I knew
what days I would stream,everything got significantly
easier.
People who found me knew when Iwas going to be streaming and I
(09:49):
got returning visitors who keepcoming back and my follower and
average viewer count doubled.
Once I for one, stuck to athree to four hour stream and
when I had days that Iconsistently showed up and had
marked down, once I had thatsandstone growth and people
noticing my content and reallylike what I'm doing started to
(10:10):
become more common, becausebeforehand I was really just
streaming to one or two friendsthat stuck around, but now it's
growing.
Consistency is really powerful.
Remember when I said this wasgoing to be a really short
episode?
That's all I got.
(10:30):
That's all I got for you.
We talked about it, so there'sno need to beat a dead horse.
I could give you constantexamples.
I can just repeat the samething, but I don't believe that
that's always good and I don'tthink that's really entertaining
for you to sit there and listento.
So instead of giving youexamples that are the same thing
just with a different color onit, we're going to end right
here.
That's all you really need toknow about the 20 mile march
(10:51):
Consistency and managing yourconsistency.
Making sure you do your 20 milemarch, and whatever it is that
you're doing every day, you willovertake anybody.
You'll win nine times out often.
If you remember the old storyabout the tortoise and the hare,
it's the same thing.
The hare fucking booked it.
Pardon my French, he booked it.
(11:11):
He ran, he got really far aheadand he was like man, I don't
need to do anything else, I'mgood, there's no way I lose.
And then he chilled and then atortoise beat him because the
tortoise kept going and he neverstopped and he kept consistent.
So that's all there is to thestory 20 Mile March.
(11:32):
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of the Ink and
Bites podcast.
I'm really looking forward tothe next one.
We have another guest lined upand it's going to be a blast.
So thank you again and I'll seeyou in the next one.
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Inc Invite
Podcasts.
Now I've been a little naughty,honestly.
If you recall, I said I wasgoing to be doing two podcast
episodes a month and two blogs amonth.
Now I've been doing well withthe blogs, but you might have
noticed that there was only oneepisode last month, and that's
for a variety of reasons.
For one, I was lazy.
(00:20):
I'm going to be completelyhonest, no need to sugarcoat it.
I was pretty lazy.
For two, I got a bunch ofpodcasting equipment that was
lent to me by my brother, as henow rents out of space for his
own podcast and he has no needfor this.
Still amazing equipment.
So, going forward, as long asI'm able to hold on to it, the
quality of my voice even thoughthis smaller microphone I got
(00:43):
now is really good and I use itfor most of my stuff like gaming
, video and streaming For thepodcast, my voice should sound
really good.
We're gonna see how it goes,but that's one of the reasons
why I took a little bit.
I redid this episode 50 timesbecause I was learning how the,
the, the giant like stream deckthing worked and I was trying to
figure out how the headphonesworked all this stuff and I kept
(01:09):
redoing it and for some reasonmy heart just wasn't in it at
the time, like I just I hated it.
I thought I was rushing, Ithought it sounded horrible and
it just didn't really feel likea good episode.
And I did do a complete episode, like I recorded the whole
thing and I was going to uploadit and then when I went to
extract the audio from the microUSD to my laptop, I noticed
that the file wouldn't open.
So I'm like, all right, well, Iguess the universe made that
(01:30):
decision for me, so I'm going totry again.
We're going to give it anothertry.
Today we're going to be talkingvery, very briefly about the
concept of the 20 mile march andthe power of consistency that
I'm always talking about at alltimes.
Now it's going to be a reallyshort episode.
I'm just going to preface thatnow because every time I
(01:50):
recorded it previously it wassuper quick.
So, like the nature of thispodcast to anyone who is new, or
I should say, I do really shortepisodes when it's just me
talking talking about like 15,20 minutes, maybe less than that
.
That is developed specificallyfor you to like maybe enjoy it
(02:11):
with coffee in the morning orduring a morning drive or
exercising or whatever.
But we also have longer formepisodes with a guest that are
your normal hour, 45, two hours,hour and a half length podcast.
So all of the short episodesare meant to get right into the
meat and potatoes, right intothe key points of whatever I'm
(02:31):
talking about.
So, while you get a really goodservice level view, the 20
minutes isn't enough to covercertain topics that might be a
little bit more complex.
Now, this one really isn't toosuper complex and I think you
can get everything you need toout of it from just this episode
.
But there's a lot of literatureabout this and it's a really
powerful concept that canbenefit you greatly if you're
(02:52):
able to incorporate it into yourdaily life.
So we all know the frequentreturners to the show and maybe
to frequent readers of my blog Italk a lot about consistency
(03:17):
and how important it is.
Now I really should take my ownadvice in certain aspects, like
with my writing, butconsistency is an unbelievably
powerful ability just to keepshowing up to what you love and
keep marching towards your goaland your career.
And if you want a deeper diveinto that and a more elaborate
(03:38):
conversation, check out episodefive, which is the talk about
writing tips, I believe, andneuroplasticity and just some
things that's true about writingand something that are false
and some tips that aren't goodto listen to.
So if you want a really goodconversation about it, check
that episode out.
But we really talk a lot abouthabit building and, just to use
(03:59):
one really quick example that Italked about, I always use
writing, so we're just gonnastick with writing.
If you are a writer and you'restruggling to work on your book,
your short story, your poem,maybe you can only write 500
words, like I could.
I can only write 500 words inmy project yesterday and I was
beating myself up about it.
But point in being, if you onlywrite 500 words, as long as you
(04:21):
show up the next day at thesame time or relatively close to
the same time and continuewriting, and maybe you get 500
again, maybe a little bit less,maybe a little bit more, but the
point is that you showed upagain and you picked up the pen
or you started typing away onthe keyboard again.
Now, if you multiply that bywhatever number you want keep
showing up every day that 500 isnot going to feel like 500.
It's going to feel like 500 did.
(04:42):
Like you know, 500 is justgoing to be exponentially
compounding.
Maybe you start to write athousand words and then that
starts to feel really easy andthen you start to write.
If you're writing 2000 words ina session, just good job,
really good job.
I can't even fathom that.
It's the point being, the moreyou show up to what you're doing
(05:06):
, the easier it will become andthe faster you'll get at it.
So that's really one examplethat I use quite frequently.
But how does that relate to thisconcept of the 20 mile march?
Well, the 20 mile march is justone building block of
consistency and the 20 milemarch is like the ultimate form
of consistency.
Now, before I tell you thefounding story of the 20 mile
(05:29):
march, I suppose it would beprudent to know where I heard it
from.
My brother passed it down to mefrom his leadership mentor at,
I think, cornell, and it reallyresonated with me when I first
heard it and I kind of combinedit with, like I said,
consistency.
But the story of the 20 MileMarch is a concept from Jim
(05:49):
Collins' book Great by Choicethat describes the difference in
strategy between two teams ofexplorers in 1911's race to the
South Pole.
One team, led by RonaldAmundensen, covered 20 miles a
day, no matter the weather,while the other team, led by
Robert Falcon Scott, tookadvantage of good weather to
(06:10):
march 40 to 60 miles, thenrested in their tents when the
weather was bad.
Amundsen's team reached theSouth Pole first, while Scott's
team perished on their returnjourney, 11 miles short of a
vital supply depot.
It's a pretty intense story,right?
I thought so when I first heardit.
Now, to me, when I heard it,that kind of sounds like
(06:34):
consistency, and the 20 milemarch is a steady march to
success.
Consistency is important.
It's really good that you showup every day, but this concept
kind of flips it on its head alittle bit.
It's important to show up everysingle day to do what you love,
but you have to stay consistentwith what you're doing every
single day.
So to be devil's advocate andplay both sides about my writing
(06:57):
example, if you show up and youwrite 500 words every single
day, it starts to get reallyeasy.
So you do 1000, it starts toget really easy to 1500.
Pair that with this concept.
It actually seems like youshouldn't do that.
It seems that you should stickwith doing 500 every single time
you write.
That is what you should do,it's ideal, it's a dichotomy to
(07:17):
balance.
It's always good that you havethe passion to want to do more
of what you love say writing2,000 words but that can lead to
burnout and you might pushreally far in your novel.
You might get an extra chapterdone in that sitting.
But now all of a sudden, forexample when in Antarctica the
weather gets bad and that teampaused and waited out in their
(07:40):
tents until the weather gotbetter, you might experience
burnout from what you love.
And the more time that you sitin burnout, the less time you're
getting closer to your careergoal or finishing what you love
making that game, finishing thatbook, finishing that poem.
Now it can be really good thatyou have those bursts of
motivation to do more of your20-mile march and that's great.
(08:01):
Never suppress that.
But, like I said, it could leadto burnout if you really do
that 40-mile march, like the oneteam did and remember they died
really close to their supplydepot because they were pushing
too far and then waiting toolong.
But it could be even harder toshow up and do your 20 mile
march when you have absolutelyno motivation or passion to that
day, you have no will to do it.
(08:23):
But in often times it'sactually the most rewarding when
you show up when you don't wantto do it.
Then you're gaining the mostgrowth and then you're still
building that habit at the sametime.
So, even if you don't feel likedoing it, doing your 20 mile
march at the minimum isrewarding Consistency, and the
20 mile march is a steady marchto success.
(08:46):
You can overtake anyone.
The streamer that streams dailyand for hours gets burnt out.
The writer who writes as muchas they can when they feel like
it loses inspiration.
The artist who never stopsdrawing as they can when they
feel like it loses inspiration.
The artist who never stopsdrawing loses faith in their art
.
Keep on the 20 mile march.
Be like a Mundenson, not Robert.
(09:07):
Don't overextend because youcan feel like you can do it that
day.
Keep the same pace.
And for the streaming bit ofthat, I feel like I could speak
on it a little bit more Now thatI've been streaming for about
three and a half months.
When I started I wasn't surewhat my guidelines were, what my
roadmap is, what my goals were,and I would sometimes do really
(09:28):
long five hour streams, evenone or two sixers in there, and
then I realized I would getburnt out after I did that and
maybe I wouldn't have my streamschedule be consistent.
That's another big thing.
Once I had a consistentstreaming schedule and I knew
what days I would stream,everything got significantly
easier.
People who found me knew when Iwas going to be streaming and I
(09:49):
got returning visitors who keepcoming back and my follower and
average viewer count doubled.
Once I for one, stuck to athree to four hour stream and
when I had days that Iconsistently showed up and had
marked down, once I had thatsandstone growth and people
noticing my content and reallylike what I'm doing started to
(10:10):
become more common, becausebeforehand I was really just
streaming to one or two friendsthat stuck around, but now it's
growing.
Consistency is really powerful.
Remember when I said this wasgoing to be a really short
episode?
That's all I got.
(10:30):
That's all I got for you.
We talked about it, so there'sno need to beat a dead horse.
I could give you constantexamples.
I can just repeat the samething, but I don't believe that
that's always good and I don'tthink that's really entertaining
for you to sit there and listento.
So instead of giving youexamples that are the same thing
just with a different color onit, we're going to end right
here.
That's all you really need toknow about the 20 mile march
(10:51):
Consistency and managing yourconsistency.
Making sure you do your 20 milemarch, and whatever it is that
you're doing every day, you willovertake anybody.
You'll win nine times out often.
If you remember the old storyabout the tortoise and the hare,
it's the same thing.
The hare fucking booked it.
Pardon my French, he booked it.
(11:11):
He ran, he got really far aheadand he was like man, I don't
need to do anything else, I'mgood, there's no way I lose.
And then he chilled and then atortoise beat him because the
tortoise kept going and he neverstopped and he kept consistent.
So that's all there is to thestory 20 Mile March.
(11:32):
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of the Ink and
Bites podcast.
I'm really looking forward tothe next one.
We have another guest lined upand it's going to be a blast.
So thank you again and I'll seeyou in the next one.
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