How do you know that you are going the correct speed?

The ‘80% rule’* has to do with sustaining an effort, otherwise known as living a life. To live your life at 80% effort means that you have the ability to give a significant amount to the task. 80% is a rather high number. If it were a grade, it is in the B category, barely, but it is. Call it a B-. 80% is an amount that can be repeated, today, the next day and week and perhaps for the rest of a life. 80% means that you are making a difference, you are showing up and participating, giving more of your self than you are holding back. 80% of a feeling will allow you to immerse yourself in it without it washing you away. *Full credit for this concept goes to the finest bike mechanic I know, Linden Carlson, where he got it is one of the great mysteries of the universe. Maybe he will tell you.

Another of my favorite irascible humans came up with this second, linked concept: ‘half hearted fanatic’. A fanatic is someone who gives 100% to the task, always, every time, albeit, only one task to the exclusion of everything else. A half hearted fanatic is someone who goes about the same task at 80%- they believe strongly in their mission but can’t quite summon the effort to only care about one thing all the time. This irascible human is Edward Abbey, author, adventurer, anarchist and environmentalist who believed that in order to truly save the natural word, you needed to immerse yourself in it, but not so much that it killed you. See it, taste it, feel it, be inspired by it, give to it, take from it, protect it, share it.

80%

When you are riding your bike at about 80% effort, you are moving along quite quickly. Too fast to have a conversation with those riding next to you but not so fast that you can’t go over the next hill or speed up when someone else decides to. Because that’s the secret to 80% — when you need to give it your all, you can improve your output by 20%. If your average speed at 80% is 18mph, a 20% jump is 3.6mph, a whopping 21.6mph. If your average speed is 25mph and you need to recruit that extra 20%, now we are talking the big 30.

So, 80% is relative- to the person, the activity, the necessity, the outcome. Ask any manager if they would like to get 80% productivity out of their employees. That means an employee is giving 80% of their time to their job and 20% of their time to something other than their job while at work. From what I can tell, the average productivity rate is 70-75%. So, if you are giving 80% at your job, you are slightly higher than your co-workers, but you still have 20% held back ready to give it your all when called upon.

Because that is the next important piece- if you are giving anything higher than 80%, it isn’t sustainable for long. No one can ride their bike at 30mph for more than about two hours. No one can work at their job full gas for more than about two weeks.

But how many of us are currently being asked to give more than 80% to our job, to our life, to the world around us? I know, I see it too. Understaffed, overworked, still going in again, day after day. Certainly not enough time to get effective bike rides in so how can your 80% on a bike ever get to that 20mph zone if you are only able to give it 7%?

We are very quickly approaching a massive crossroads in our world, if you can’t feel it approaching then you are way overworked or not paying attention. Now, more than ever, we need to slow down, drop our levels to 80%, perhaps even lower to give ourselves some extra rest because in a little over one month’s time, we are going to make a decision that will affect the future of our planet, our selves and who we are as a species.

So give yourself a break, find a draft to catch for the next few weeks, eddy out. Slow down, pay attention, share thoughts and ideas with those around you, communicate your intentions clearly and without anger. If you can’t do that right now, then you are way too close to the fanatic line, too close to the red line, too close to 100%.

Back it off to 80%, please.

Cheers