Why I Downloaded Couch to 5K (After Running 12 Half-Marathons)
So there I was—a guy who’s raced a dozen half marathons (a few of them hungover) and done triathlons—downloading an app made for people who can’t run around the block: Couch to 5K.
Why?
Not because I’m out of shape. Physically, I can go run a half. I did it not too long ago on a whim. And I walk 6-10 miles a day at a 15-minute pace, so my legs, lungs, and heart are conditioned perfectly fine.
But lately, I just didn’t want to. I mean, I wanted to have run, I just didn’t want to do the running part.
I’d lace up with a plan of running 5 miles. Two or three minutes in, my ADHD brain would start serving me the to-do list I seem to store away until I want to avoid doing the thing in front of me—Did you send that email? Let me stop and do that real quick. Oh shit, I need to call him back about the so-and-so. I’ll do that and run again when I’m done.
Before I knew it, I was walking home with another 7 or 8 mile walk in the books, subconsciously kicking myself in the ass for not seeing it through.
But I know better than this. Quitting becomes a habit, and it’s not one I’m comfortable picking up.
So I committed to breaking the pattern. And I decided to start by making it embarrassingly easy.
The Ridiculously Simple Solution
I picked up Couch to 5K and started on day 1 of week 1:
Run a minute, walk for one-and-a-half. Repeat for 15 minutes. Easy enough.
Next time, 90 seconds. Done. Run 3 minutes. Crushed it. Then a couple more minutes. And so on. I followed the prompts even when it felt like cheating. Stack a win, stack another.
I ripped through the 5K plan, then picked up the 10K app and started pushing through that one.
The mental blockers eroded quickly because I was building a winning streak instead of a quitting streak.
The Truth About Big Goals
This is how almost all big things are accomplished: they start small and compound over time into massive progress.
But it’s also how big things are never accomplished.
Bill Gates famously said:
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
Bill Gates
That simple quote explains why most big ideas and initiatives fail. The big gains come from getting started, maintaining consistency, and compounding those wins into exponential returns later on.
But when most people have a big goal, they get disappointed by what feels like a lack of progress early on and quit.
My Couch to 5K app allowed me to lower my expectations to get started, establish some consistency, and ratchet up the progress as I accumulated wins.
What This Means for Your Business
The same concept applies to your business today. Think about that big hairy goal that seems elusive no matter what you do.
Do you want to build a high-performance outbound sales engine?
Get operations running like a Swiss watch?
Land world-class client testimonials covering your website?
Break through that next revenue threshold and add a zero to the business?
Whatever it is, if it’s been on your whiteboard for months and you haven’t managed to crack it, it may be time to break it down into embarrassingly easy first steps to build momentum—then add to the wins and crank up expectations as you build the winning streak.
For that outbound sales engine: Start by making 25 calls this week. Don’t even worry about the results. Just make the calls. Add a few more the following week.
For internal operations: Commit to making ONE simple process improvement this week. Not overhauling your entire CRM. One thing.
For world-class client success: Schedule one interview a week with one client. Ask what you’re doing well and what you can improve on.
For adding a zero to the business: Start by simply documenting what that means—how many sales would that actually require? How many sales calls do you need to take to get that many sales? How many leads would it take to get that many sales calls?
This Is Not a Permission Slip to Coast
I’m a big-goal guy. I’m not telling you to “take it easy.” I’m saying: use easy as an on-ramp, then ratchet fast. Small wins are not the destination—they’re traction. Stay on “easy” too long and it turns into avoidance dressed up as strategy.
The principle: Start embarrassingly easy to kill friction. Then increase difficulty quickly so the work gets hard again, just in a controlled way.
Guardrails So You Don’t Stay on Easy Street
Time-boxed “easy” period. Give yourself 7–10 days max at the embarrassingly easy level.
Automatic ratchet. When you hit the target two days in a row with gas left in the tank, increase the load the next day.
No backsliding below baseline. Miss a day? Repeat the same level tomorrow—don’t lower it.
Your Move
Pick that one goal that keeps defeating you. Make it so easy you’d be embarrassed to miss. Do it for a week. Then turn up the dial.
Five years from now, you’ll look back amazed at what compounded from those tiny, “insignificant” victories.
Trust me. I’m the guy who went from downloading Couch to 5K to pushing my real limits again—all because I was willing to start with running for just 60 seconds.
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is lower the bar. Just not forever.
