Could you still hold a conversation?

Easy pace is the hardest thing to learn in running.

It feels like you are doing nothing. Like you are wasting the session. You want to push.

But that slow, boring pace is where the engine gets built.

I think about this a lot when I look at small businesses.

Most of them are sprinting.

New offer every month.

New logo every year.

New tool every week.

And then everyone is tired by October and nothing really moved.

The stuff that works is slow and nobody claps for it.

Answer the emails the same day.

Post something useful every week.

Call the customer back.

Fix the small broken thing on the website.

Do it again next week.

A year later you are still running. The guy who sprinted the first 5km is walking.

I am not saying never push. Race day exists. Launch day exists. Just not every day.

So be honest with yourself. In your business right now, could you still hold a conversation?

Or are you out of breath?