Years ago I listened to a podcast episode where Tim Ferriss interviewed entrepreneur Derek Sivers. One story he told has stuck with me since listening to it. Whenever I get burned out or overwhelmed with life's trivialities, I always come back to the story he shared.

Every day, Derek would ride along a beautiful 7.5-mile ocean-front bike path in Santa Monica, California. He would go as fast as he could - full-on, 100 percent, head-down, red-faced sprinting.

He would finish exhausted and look down at his watch loop time:

43 minutes. Every time. 

After a few months, he was less enthusiastic about his bike rides. He had mentally linked it with being completely exhausted.

Then one day, he decided he would do the same bike ride, but at his own pace. He would just chill, take it easy, and dial it back maybe 50 percent of his usual effort.

Lo and behold, he had a beautiful, relaxing ride. He was relaxed, smiling, and looking around - barely giving any effort. He saw dolphins in the water, a pelican fly overhead. He was in awe at the beauty and couldn't help but say "wow!" and smile.

When he finished, he looked down at his watch: 45 minutes.

"Wait - what?!?!" he thought. "How could that be?"

Apparently, all of the exhausting, red-faced, full-on push-push-push he had been doing for so long had only given him a 4% boost. Derek realized he could just take it easy and still get 96% of the results. 

He could go the same distance, in about the same time, but one way left him exhausted, and the other way, rejuvenated. 

I think of this often. When I notice that I'm all stressed out about something or driving myself to exhaustion, I remember Derek's story about that bike ride and I remind myself that I can dial back my effort by 50 percent and still accomplish everything I want to without the exhaustion.

It's amazing how much you can get done just as well and just as fast, with what feels like half the effort.

"Which then makes me realize that half of my effort wasn’t effort at all, but just unnecessary stress that made me feel like I was doing my best."