Eleven Extra Steps: Lessons from Louis Rudd

Louis Rudd on his journey across the Antarctic

Battling wind gusts up to 60 mph, dragging a sled weighing hundreds of pounds, Louis Rudd and Colin O'Brady, separately and alone, with no outside help, crossed the Antarctic recently.  O'Brady won the "race", completing the journey in 54 days; 56 days for Rudd. The trip was 925 miles covering approximately 16 miles a day.  Some days they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces.  The amazing thing is that they are the only two to survive this journey and they did it at the same time.  But that is not the lesson here.
For a lot of us, every day seems like a journey across the Antarctic--pulling 400 pound sleds and battling 60 mph winds.  Walking 15 miles a day means pushing forward one step at a time, 30 steps a minute, counting every step, struggling for every step.  And when Rudd was exhausted for the day, when he couldn't take another step, he took eleven more steps.
Why eleven?  It was once calculated, Rudd explained, that if the famous English explorer, Robert Falcon Scott and his team, had taken 11 more steps each day of their expedition in the early 1900's, they would have survived.
When you're tired, and you need to get one more quote done, make one more sales call, answer one more customer service question, satisfy one more customer's urgent request--remember:  Eleven More Steps.  Success demands Eleven More Steps.  There is no easy way.  Hook up your 400 pound sled and drag it Eleven More Steps.