Anyone who knows me knows that I have a love/hate relationship with yoga. Actually, when you take a weighted average mean, it’s more like a lukewarm relationship with yoga, and most I don’t feel like I’m getting any better at it. I’m certainly far from being a pretzel, and yet I persist…….

I find this is relevant to so many issues our high performing clients face about many things both inside and outside of work.

Interestingly I often find clients in a state of thinking that they are standing still rather than moving forward at a certain rate. However when we dig a little deeper, it turns out that they are either:

• Very much moving forward – they just forgot to celebrate and really take note of what they have already accomplished as they are now focused on so much more ahead of them; or
• They have had a few extra curveballs thrown at them that they weren’t expecting and therefore don’t feel like they are getting ahead.

 

And let’s face it, 2020 has been quite a year for some unexpected curveballs that people really didn’t choose to have to deal with and therefore high performers are naturally trying to hold themselves to the same standards as they would in any normal year.

In any case, they are forgetting how far they have come already and what position they would be in now if they hadn’t already crushed through and accomplished many other things that they just ignored.

It’s really important to go easy on yourself to adjust to more realistic standards given whatever is going on in the world that you may not be able to control.

So back to my yoga analogy, while I might not be getting any better at yoga especially with respect to my flexibility I choose to view the upside, that at least I’m not going backwards and getting any less flexible. This means that I can still do all of my other fun training of the running, jumping, weights variety with minimal risk of injury.

So here are a few tips to remember when you feel like you might not be moving forward as fast or as far as you would like at any stage:

Do a “ta-da” list rather than just a to-do list

It’s important that we get excited about what we have achieved rather than just go “tick” and head to the to do list. Chances are, especially if you are a high performer, you have achieved way more than you are giving yourself credit for. Go on, do a happy dance to celebrate and see how it feels.

Scheduled downtime is an important part of your productivity plan

We can’t be all guns blazing all the time. Scheduling some downtime which may range from an hour to a couple of weeks or even a year can be very important to re-energise to propel yourself even higher when you are ready.

Sometimes, it’s ok to just be

Further to the previous point, sometimes it’s ok just to be and appreciate how far you’ve come and take some time to appreciate where you are now. You’ll move forward again whenever you set your mind to it.

If you would like help with managing your mindset around your desired progress, please get in touch.

 

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If you’d like to find out more, join the conversation in our next open workshop.

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