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Intensity Is Good. Consistency Is Better.
In 1911, two teams of explorers began a race to be the first to reach the South Pole. Robert Falcon Scott led the British team. Roald Amundsen led the Norwegian team.
- Both teams arrived in Antarctica to set up camp around the same time.
- Both teams would travel the same distance to reach the pole and back.
- Both teams would begin their journeys with a few weeks of each other.
The British team, led by Scott, traveled to the pole and back, man-hauling their sleds. Picture men pulling 400 lb sleds 1,800 miles in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.
In his journal, one of the men in Scott’s party remarked, “It was the most back-breaking work I have ever come up against.”
Scott wanted to prove the bravery, determination, and prowess of his Naval officers. He required his men to pull the heavy sleds across the frozen landscape for 10, 12, and 16 hours a day. Historians would say this of Scott, “He did not believe a day’s work had been done unless there’s visible distress.”
Go at your own pace.
The Norwegian team led by Amundsen took a different approach. One laughed at by the explorer community at the time. The Norwegian team used dogs to pull the sleds, and each man skied to the pole and back. Amundsen also took a different approach to the team’s daily effort.
Amundsen would only allow his team to travel 15 miles per day. If it took five hours, the group spent the rest of the day in their tents resting and recovering for the next day.
Scott’s team arrived at the pole on January 17, 1912. How did he know he’d arrived at the pole? The Norwegian flag flapped in the Antarctica wind. Amundson even left some provisions and a letter of congratulations.
The Norwegian team had reached the pole over a month earlier. They would have reached the pole a day sooner but had completed the 15-mile daily quota. Even with history and glory within their grasp, Amundsen stuck to the 15 miles per day.
Intensity is good. Consistency is better.
By reaching the South Pole, Scott’s team achieved something few people have ever done. However, they never made it back to base camp. They died in their tent of starvation and exhaustion within a day’s walk of safety.
Look around, and you will see hard-working people. Yet not all of them are making progress towards their goals. Sure, a baseline of work ethic is required to achieve anything in life, but you must balance it with smarts too.
The occasional herculean effort fails to deliver what a steady and reasonable pace can produce. Intensity is good, but consistency is better.
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Hat tip to Bill Oppenheimer for turning me on to this story.
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Hi! I'm Jeff Shannon!
Each week I share memorable and uplifting stories of remarkable people accomplishing extraordinary things with simple acts of self-mastery. By subscribing, you can also get a free digital copy of my book, Hard Work Is Not Enough.
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