The Year of the Last Mile

Inspired by Cortex’s Yearly Theme System, I’ve decided to declare a theme for 2020 for myself.  A theme is a loose, free-form word or concept that you wish to emulate this year in all the various aspects of your life.  It is a higher level of abstraction than stubborn New Years’ resolutions or goals which are not very robust to the curveballs that life throws at you during the year.  It provides a North Star to return to when the fog descends, as it will inevitably do at times in the next 12 months.

For me, 2020 will be 'The Year of the Last Mile’.

The last mile is a reference to a problem faced primarily by logistics, transport and telecommunication companies - describing the difficulty of connecting hubs/warehouses to final destinations (homes) when delivering goods or services.  Getting goods and services in bulk from hub to hub is relatively simple, but that last stretch of getting the individual package to its final destination tends to be highly complex and costly.

So if you lay out a package’s journey from order to delivery, the first 95% of the process is relatively easy to accomplish.  That last 5% of the journey takes a disproportionate amount of effort and execution to get right.

Now, of course, I’m not a logistics company.  But this idea can be analogised to personal projects or tasks in your own life.  For me, that last mile speaks to the final finishing touches that we put on a project or piece of work before we ’ship’ it.  It’s the crossing of the t’s and dotting of the i’s that declares something finished and shared with the world.

This is something I’ve struggled with in the past.  I’ve got plenty of ideas and I’m very good at starting things.  What I don’t do as well, is finishing what I start.  I can get a project 95% of the way there - but then my perfectionism sets in and that last 5% often takes much longer than it should.

On one hand, I like this about myself - because it encapsulates how much I care about my work.  I want to make it as good as possible.  But when I procrastinate on that final stretch (because I can always make things better) it holds me in place and that stagnation harms future projects that I could be working on to push myself forward.

So, in 2020, I want to focus my attention on finishing what I start.  I want to be hyper-aware of when I’m in that last mile and push myself to do what is necessary to put the finishing touches on (without as much caution) and get it out into the world.

The Year of the Last Mile.