Ambition is a long game. Don’t burn everything you’ve got in the first quarter.

Effort you cannot repeat is not really effort, it is a stunt. People who get somewhere over years tend to work at a pace that survives Mondays, bad sleep and long boring stretches. Going all out early feels virtuous and often just takes you out of the game. Pacing is not a shortage of hunger; it is how hunger gets to keep showing up.

Decide on a weekly amount of work you could manage in a bad week rather than a good one. Make it slightly less than you think you can handle. Hold that for a month before you add anything to it.