Consistency before Intensity

I just read something that is so much what I think but put much better than I could ever put it.  “Consistency before intensity.”
As most know I have a bit to do with volunteers, and over the years I have seen something time and again.  So many people are keen to do something.  They are the right person for the job.  But something makes me wince every time.
The person is keen to start and starts at 100 miles an hour and wonders why in 6 months’ time, they are not keen on the matter anymore.  Often enthusiasm needs to be tempered.  It is right the person does the job, but I am doing them a dis-service when I ignore the fact that the current pace cannot be maintained for ever.
Often the person themselves does not see it.  They act like the way they are now is the way they will aways be, and act like it is an affront to think otherwise.  Yet so often I look for them without finding them down the track.  What started at a great rate, could not be maintained.
It is one of the reasons I am very much for giving someone something that may require maximum effort for minimal time.  Time off to me is a biggy.  Everyone needs it.  It does not matter it may not be felt like now, but down the track it will.  Nothing can be maintained forever.  It is one of the reasons I am a great adherent to working 6 days and having the 7th off.  Not doing that is a recipe for disaster.  Teaching may suggest otherwise, but not all teaching is right.  I have tried it, and it just does not work.
When it comes to volunteering, I find a slow burn is way better than a flash in the pan.  A slow burn can become more intense.  But the clincher for me is a person tends to be there longer.  Trying to maintain something week in and week out, without the reasonable prosect of a break, becomes a mental health issue.
Sometimes people for their own sanity will call in sick.  Physically they may not exhibit any physical symptoms, but mentally they have had enough.  And rightly so in my mind.  Often if there is no change, the person disappears altogether.
That to me is not only sad but unnecessary. It is hard not to feel like a failure in such circumstances.  But it is a management failure, not a volunteer failure.
To my mind it need not be that way.  The best volunteers are cared about and watched.  They are constantly affirmed. Some can start with intensity and rise to great heights.  But to me that is a management issue that can only be recognized by caring and watching.  It can be gotten right or wrong.  But as in all things practice can make a person better.
Enthusiasm is to be nurtured and encouraged.  Done correctly it is a win-win and avoids a large and unnecessary turn over.