How to Find Your Zone of Optimal Personal Velocity

Do you remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The hare ran very fast, but got cocky and slacked off then lost the race. The tortoise moved very slowly, but consistently and won the race. The tortoise and the hare is an excellent metaphor for understanding the nature of our individual velocity.

Velocity? Most people don’t think about having a personal velocity. Velocity, which is rate of motion or speed, is usually used in the context of a car or a speeding bullet, but not in the context of a person.

But I’d like you to think for a moment about your personal velocity. What is your velocity? That’s an interesting question, isn’t it? Your velocity is a combination of your energy patterns and your drive. There’s a natural intensity and drive, a pace at which each person is at their best, and it differs from one individual to the next.

So what’s your natural pace? In order to find out you’ll need to better understand the concept of human velocity. Velocity is the intensity with which you live. Some people naturally operate at a highly intense pace and others at a less intense pace. Each is probably best suited to their own pace. But in our society we have a bias toward achievement and encourage each person to aspire to high velocity. That may or may not be a good idea.

In business we have sales contests that reward the short-term achievers who did the most. Sports and games acknowledge those who give it an all-out effort. Businesses recognize people who produce big results in a short time frame. Is that bad? No, but there should also be some time and energy devoted to those who don’t operate at such a frenetic pace. If they contribute to the advancement of the business or society, they should also be acknowledged for doing so.

Let’s look at your natural pace, your natural velocity. There are three different levels of velocity.

Zones of Velocity

A person of high velocity, on the other hand, actually enjoys the work, as long as it moves them toward their goals. They sometimes get bored with play and feel the need to turn play into work. They need that intensity and purposefulness. In contrast, a moderate-velocity person likes a nice balance of work and play.

Your Optimum Zone

What’s your velocity? Every person needs to know what pace works best for them. When they exceed it they start to experience burnout. When they don’t even approach it they experience boredom or depression. The key for all of us is to identify and stay within our zone.

Think about your own natural velocity. What zone are you comfortable in? Ever hear people talk about "the zone?" That’s when you flow, you feel like you’re in the groove, you know you’re working at your best, you’re at your right pace and level of intensity, the challenge you’ve bitten off is just about the size you can chew, and you know you’re going after something you can handle.

When you get above your zone, when you’re pushing yourself too hard, the first thing you experience is stress, a feeling of tension. Now, realize that stress can be a good thing. Stress is just pressure, resistance. When people handle this pressure in unhealthy ways, stress gets a negative connotation. If you continue to push harder against the pressure of stress and if you stay anxious, you can start losing effectiveness.

Another thing you can experience if you keep on pushing harder is burnout, where you just feel, What’s the use? You start losing motivation and need a time of recovery to get back into your zone.

On the lower side, if you don’t push yourself hard enough, if you don’t take on a big enough challenge, the first thing you experience is boredom. You’re saying, with a long drawn-out sigh, "This just doesn’t feel like enough." It’s not enough to keep you alert, awake, at your best, in your zone. You’ll find that you become disinterested or bored if you continue without experiencing enough challenge to get yourself going. And boredom can become apathy, a total lack of interest.

Apathy leads to depression. In each case—boredom, apathy, and depression—or stress, anxiety, and burnout—the problem is that you are outside your natural velocity.

You see, once you know what your best velocity is, you can stay in the zone almost all the time. We need to get out of the mentality of thinking, What is my maximum, the most I could do? and start asking, What is my optimum, the best I can do? You don’t want to burn yourself out. You want to find your cruising speed so you can stay there all day long.

Velocity is a combination of energy and drive, combining physical and mental. Your natural range of physical energy is enhanced or limited by your nutrition, fitness, the amount of rest you get, the way you manage stress, and your attitude. You also have a natural degree of drive or self-motivation. Drive is affected by your self-esteem, the clarity of your purpose and goals, your awareness of possibilities, the appeal that your goals have to you, and your ability to effectively plan and follow that plan.

Here’s a way to describe high, moderate, and low velocity in terms of energy and drive:

High velocity—Your drive is to be self-motivated. You love to work toward goals, particularly challenging goals. You have high aspirations and hold yourself and others to high standards. Competition excites you, and you have high expectations of yourself.

Your energy is allocated by always thinking about tasks, goals or work interests. You even use leisure time to advance toward goals whether they’re personal or professional. You find inactivity to be frustrating. You prefer long hours filled with varied activity.

Moderate velocity—Your drive is to be somewhat self-motivated. You set reachable goals, have moderate aspirations, don’t demand absolute perfection, and accept competition, though you do not require it.

You allocate your energy with a balance of work and leisure. You prefer standard work days that do not require constant overtime, with a moderate mix of activities. You use leisure time to complete chores and to socialize. You find inactivity relaxing, meaning you can just lie on the beach and feel good about the time spent.

Low velocity—You are driven primarily by immediate needs or by others. You find work generally demotivating. You prefer to work as a team player rather than being a solo performer or leader of the team. You’d prefer that someone else took the lead. You seldom set big goals. You have mild aspirations, not lofty ones. You really don’t like competition, avoiding it if possible.

You use your energy to take things as they come. You are casual about your leisure time, which you use to pursue personal or social interests. You enjoy occasional inactivity and appreciate your own downtime.

Which pattern describes you the most? One way to identify your velocity is to look back over your life and see if it tends to reflect a higher or lower pattern of energy or drive. Here are some questions to help you: *Does your life look more achievement-oriented or more relationship-oriented?

• Have your achievements come at a faster or a slower pace than your peers?
• Is it important to you to be the first or the best?
• In school were you involved in lots of extracurricular activities or just a few?
• Are you happier working on projects or just hanging out with friends?
• Do you make and keep New Year’s resolutions?
• Do you tend to be patient, or do you want things to happen right now?
• Have you accomplished most of the objectives you’ve set your mind to, or do you tend to occasionally lower your goals?
• How challenging are your goals? Do you want to change the world or just do your part?
• What kind of standards do you set for yourself? Do you drive to be the best in the entire world, or are you happy to be just playing the game?
• How long do you persist on a task before letting up?
• Do you pack your day with activities, or do you kind of take things as they come?
• What would you do if you had loads of free time? Take on a new project or catch up on movies, reading, and visiting with friends?
• What do you do when you drive to work? Do you daydream, listen to instructional tapes, or start talking to business associates on your car phone?
• What do you do between activities on vacation? Read, rest, or look for new adventures?

Now, there’s no specific answer to any one of those questions that says, "This is high and this is low velocity," but there’s a pattern in there that’s easily identifiable.

Remember, everyone has a pace and an intensity for which they’re naturally suited. When you acknowledge that and attain your zone, you’re at your best, your creativity increases, your productivity grows, and your peace of mind flourishes. You can indeed achieve that flow of energy, so start today to explore your velocity and find your optimum zone.