You’ve probably heard of the phrase, ‘life is a marathon, not a sprint.” But there’s a story I really liked that gave me a different perspective. Life might be a march.
The story of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen is real. In 1911 they both aimed to be the first human to ever set foot on the Earth’s south pole.
On 14 December 1911, Amundsen raised the flag of Norway at the South Pole. The Norwegians began their journey only 3 weeks before the British, but they arrived at the finish line a full 33 days earlier. Although there was no official race that happened, Scott was devastated to discover that they weren’t the first people to reach the south pole.
Scott’s team was not only mentally and emotionally devastated, but they were also physically exhausted. It took them 99 days just to get to the south pole. On their way home exhausted, without food, and extremely cold, Scott’s team died in their tent. The Norwegian explorer’s last journal entry was dated March 29, 1912.
There were different accounts on the true story but all of them agreed that Scott’s team didn’t properly plan the expedition. First, they chose a starting point for the expedition farther than Amundsen’s starting point. Then, it took them way longer to arrive at the finish line. A week’s delay can mean life and death during an expedition in inhabitable places like the south pole.
But Scott’s blunder was really how they approached the expedition. There were no successful attempts of reaching the south pole before 1911 for a reason. In fact, Scott first tried to reach the then-no man’s land in 1902 but had to go back due to his team’s health condition and the sub-zero temperature. The frequent blizzards bring about days with no visibility and winds that can knock a fully grown adult down.
The game plan of Scott’s team was to take advantage of the weather and march 40 to 60 miles. On bad weather days, they stayed in their tents to supposedly gather back their strength. On the Norwegian side, they marched 20 miles every day regardless of the weather. We all know which tactic produced good results.
What was wrong with Scott’s strategy? It relied on something he doesn’t have any control of. Who knows how many blizzards will happen in a particular week? The British team had no way of knowing exactly, or even roughly, how long it would take them to reach the south pole. This resulted in the mismanagement of their resources, which eventually caused the worst of all outcomes.
This story gave me an idea that might be useful for you as well. Instead of treating this year as marathon of your goals, why not treat it as an expedition? A marathon only has a finish line and is not life-threatening. But if you’re in sales or running a business of your own, your actions can literally make or break your business. You’ll be more careful not to exhaust your resources and you’ll set actions that you’ll accomplish regardless of the “weather’.
Jim Collins, the Author of the books Good to Great and Great by Choice, called Amundsen a
10X leader”. One of the traits that 10X leaders possess is fanatical discipline, or “a display of extreme consistency of action so that every action is consistent with their values, goals, performance standards, and methods. They are utterly relentless, monomaniacal, and unbending in their focus on their quests.”
Why Amundsen succeeded is not just because he’s a good planner. He was also relentless in carrying out his plans in the face of the biting cold and smashing winds.
