I signed up for a half marathon.
It’s in early December, so I gave myself about 40 days to get ready.
I’m not starting from zero. All year I’ve been running about five miles once or twice a week, and I’ve done half marathons before, so I know the distance.
Yesterday I went out for my first long run of the plan. Seven miles.
And I have to say…
I think I’m in trouble.
The last time I ran that far I was probably in my early twenties. I’m 35 now.
Everything comes back slower. Everything hurts a little more. I’m less mobile and less flexible.
During the run I actually felt okay.
By the time I got home I was gassed. Then it hit me that I’d barely covered half the race distance.
Today I had to cancel my three-mile recovery run. I’m too tight, my joints ache, and if I want to finish this race I can’t afford an injury.
I had a target time in mind. Now I’m adjusting my expectations to just finishing.
I’m pretty sure I’ll get there. I have a feeling it won’t be fun.
So what does this have to do with running a business?
Plenty.
When you stop doing something for a long time, you can’t just flip it back on.
Say you pause your outreach campaigns for a few months. They won’t magically start working again the day you turn them back on, any more than I’ll magically run the half marathon I could have run at 20.
It’s the same with your books. Ignore them all year, cram everything into December, and you probably won’t do a very good job.
The same goes for nearly every part of a business.
That’s why consistent inputs matter, no matter what the results look like that week.
It’s also why you build systems. As the company grows you take on more channels, more projects and more moving parts, and they all need to run without you.
We see the same thing with hiring at HireUA.
Founders who only hire once in a blue moon lose the muscle. You don’t go out and run sprints if you haven’t sprinted in five years.
That’s where we come in. Our recruiters are hiring, screening and interviewing every single day, so their skills stay sharp.
It’s a big part of why more than 100 happy clients have gone on video to talk about working with us.
To see what they said and learn how we work, book a call with the HireUA team here:
