Photo credit: kevin dooley

Quite some time ago, I introduced the concept of the 20-Mile March. The idea comes from Jim Collins’ latest book, Great by Choice. Collins describes the 20-Mile March as the set of activities that great companies do day in, day out, regardless of the prevailing economic conditions, that help make them great companies. Some examples of 20-Mile March activities for companies included improving sales by 10% every year, or investing 5% of revenue into R&D every year, no matter whether it was a good year or a bad year financially. Collins noticed that companies that maintained these steady, consistent strategies over time ended up performing better than those that didn’t – especially in tumultuous times.

Anyway, back in my original post, I argued that engineers could apply the 20-Mile March principle to their work and personal lives as well. I figured that if companies could benefit from living by certain non-negotiable to-do lists – pushing hard when times were tough, and holding back when there was temptation to go over the top – why couldn’t  regular people do the same? Then I promised to create my own 20-Mile March and share it with you so that you might be inspired to create your own, which brings us to today’s post.

But, before I reveal my own 20-Mile March, I wanted to give you some insight as to how I approached creating it in the first place.

Developing a 20-Mile March

So, what exactly should you do to develop a 20-mile march? My approach was to look at each of the various “hats” I wear as a person: I’m a husband, a Catholic, an engineer, and a blogger. I’m a lot of other things too, but I wanted to focus on the few most important things in my life. You can’t be all things to all people, so I thought it best to develop a framework that focused on the important stuff. I wanted to put first things first, as Stephen Covey would put it.

So, what I did next was to look at each of these roles and think about what I really need to do on a regular basis to make sure I’m ridiculously great (as Steve Jobs would say) in those roles. I wanted to do everything I could to be incredible at what I am and what I do.

Then, I used the following rules as a bit of a guideline to help direct my efforts. Each of my 20-Mile March items had to jive with the following…

My rules had to be:

• Reasonable
• Active (not passive)
• Based on Excellence (not mediocrity)
• Repeatable
• Heavy-hitting

Basically, I wanted to make sure that the things I do were actually doable (reasonable), that they were active things as opposed to passive things (doing things instead of stopping things), that these things will result in my being great rather than just good, and that I can do these things daily, or at least weekly so that I can make a habit of them. Finally, I wanted what I did to matter. I wanted a lot of bang for my buck, so to speak.

My 20-Mile March

So without further ado, here’s my first attempt at a 20-mile march.

For all things husbandly I will…

• Do something unexpected to make my wife’s day better every day
• Listen more and talk less
• Make the decision to be loving, even when it’s tough
• Put her first

For my faith I will…

• Read or listen to at least 15 minutes of scripture every day
• Pray for at least 15 minutes every day
• Attend and participate in weekly mass
• Maintain at least one church-related volunteer role throughout the year.

For my engineering career I will…

• Always be learning something technical related to my career
• Always be developing soft skills related to my career
• Maintain excellent focus on my work each day
• Lead by example
• Take ownership of everything I do

For my blog I will…

• Write three times per week for this blog
• Write at least once a week for another blog, like engineering.com
• Respond to all reader questions and comments here and on Facebook and Twitter.

Your Assignment

Okay – so there it is. That’s my first real stab at a 20-Mile March. I’ll probably refine it over the next few weeks as I try it out and mull it all over in my head. I’ll be sure to let you know how things are going, and what I’m doing well and what’s not going so well.

In the meantime, it would be awesome if you could do two things: I’d love to know what you think of my 20-Mile March, and I’d love for you to create your own and share it on the blog. Please leave your comments in the form below!