Never Underestimate the Last Mile

I recently attended a talk from a marathon runner, who explained that the last mile feels harder than the all the rest combined. Why is it that things always feel tougher once you near the end? Shouldn’t that be the easy part?

Research reveals the opposite. Let’s assume it takes approximately one month to embed a new habit into your routine. After that, the effort lessens because we can do it on autopilot. We might believe that the beginning of the month is the hardest, and that things get easier to sustain as we near the end. Yet Ohio State University’s study on New Year’s resolutions found that whilst 23% quit by the end of the first week because it’s too hard, almost double (43%) quit towards the end of January. Why do the majority fail when they’re closer to achieving their goal of embedding a new habit?

It’s because we chronically and consistently underestimate the last mile. And this manifests differently in everyone. For some, the feeling of ‘almost there’ leads to loss of focus. Overconfidence creeps in and distractions or competing priorities derail progress, leading us to lose sight of the final steps.

For others, feelings of uncertainty reach their peak, motivation becomes increasingly fragile and as new, unexpected obstacles emerge, the goal feels more distant than ever.

With willpower and energy resources at their most depleted by the end, we easily stumble.

The Last Mile is the Most Critical

Though underestimated, the last mile is in many cases more important than the others. It’s the moment we bring our work to light. Imagine a personal project like writing a book. Earlier in the race, we’re writing for no one but ourselves and disappointing no one but ourselves if we stop writing. The last mile involves sharing that writing with the world: what if they don’t like it? What if they don’t read it? Suddenly, we’re acutely aware of the realities that finishing the last mile could create… and we slow down.

Seth Godin describes this as “the resistance”. It’s the moment where you and others around you will seek to water down the idea to keep you safe, to ensure you don’t stand out and that you take no risks. He explains that “the resistance” is so strong, we abandon our project at the last mile and fail to “ship it” because that last part requires the most emotional labour of all. It’s not writing the book that’s hard, it’s devising and executing a marketing plan to share it with the world.

Without embracing this last mile, the rest of the work languishes in a drawer or on a bookshelf and does as much good as if we’d never done it at all.

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The Last Mile is Longer Than We Think

One of the critical issues underpinning our increased resistance in the last mile is that we underestimate the amount of important work that needs to happen. We think writing the book is the hard part, but the harder part is getting it “out there” in the world.

This doesn’t just apply to personal projects, it also applies to large-scale initiatives where the resistance is as much internal as external. In addition to the team resisting a bold idea, customers also resist change, and it’s easy to underestimate the work needed to encourage new behaviours.

The Behavioural Scientist journal shares the story of the Canada Learning Bond programme, which provided free money to low-income families for their children’s education. The organisers were confident this was something people wanted and needed, but were surprised upon launch to see an initial take-up rate of only 16%. They had underestimated the biggest source of resistance: the program required opening a specific type of bank account — an administrative hurdle that represented a significant barrier for the target.

If it’s not customer behaviours that stand in the way, it’s other unforeseen factors. Many of us budget the time needed to write a book, but forget to budget for the time needed to cultivate a community of readers, devise launch materials, find, pitch for and attend book talks… the list goes on.

Similarly, in organisations, complexities creep in at the last minute. A great example of this is the aptly named concept of last-mile delivery. Logistics expert Komal Puri explains that “whilst customers want deliveries to be free and fast, last mile is the most expensive and time-consuming part of the supply chain process amounting up to 53% of total shipping costs.” If the last step in the process is over half the cost, we can assume it’s also over half the effort, perhaps even 80% due to its complexities.

The crux of the matter is, most processes aren’t linear, but we approach them expecting to expend our energy at a consistent level throughout. How to recalibrate?

Leave Fuel in the Tank to Go The Distance

When we start a new project, we’re often tempted to go in with gusto. We obsess and enthuse for the first few weeks, deploying more time and energy than the project needs and overdelivering at every turn. As routine sets in, we expect to maintain the pace with which we started, but struggle to sustain our initial fervour. In the final moments of the project, we’re exhausted, our mental and physical reserves depleted. It only takes an unexpected bump in the road for us to down tools altogether.

Next time you start something new, hold back more resources and internal energy reserves than you think you’ll need. Especially if you’re embarking on a new process you’ve not done before. Resisting the initial desire to go all-out will be uncomfortable, but will sustain you to withstand the internal and external resistance you encounter as you approach the last mile.

How to do it?

Firstly, anticipate the resistance that’s coming near the end. Once we have an idea of why we’ll need to reserve energy, we’re more likely to do it. Seth Godin’s Ship It Journal is a brilliant resource for reflecting on where exactly the resistance is lurking. Is it an inner fear? Will it come from a project stakeholder? How could you avoid it?

Secondly, learn from anyone who’s done something similar before. Get them to share their curveball stories and the resistance they encountered. How long did it take them? What were their limitations? What boundaries did they set to protect their energy?

Thirdly, redefine the task. The phrase “writing a book” is incredibly misleading. Most people don’t seek to simply put pen to paper for 100,000 words. They want to sell a book, or they want to share a free book with a community of readers. Now the nature of the project has changed. Writing 100,000 words is a much smaller task than getting 100,000 people to read them. Redefining the task reminds us that carving out consistent writing time each day is only the beginning and will not get us to the end goal.

Once you’ve redefined the task, there may be some parts you can outsource. Just as you might choose to find a literary agent to support you in your book project, so you can find support for other projects. Doing it doesn’t mean doing it all ourselves.

Ximena Vengochea is a brilliant writer, speaker and UX researcher. She openly shares her journey on Substack, from how it affects her energy levels to how she launches and juggles her projects. She describes how writing and launching her first book Listen Like You Mean It was such an exhausting process, that it inspired the theme for her next book: Rest Easy.

The thing is, we don’t know how hard the last mile will be until we get there. But by setting ourselves up with the right support, we can reserve enough energy to make sure we don’t flop before the finish line.

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