lifestyle

You can’t ace it all the time

Think back to your school days and I’m sure you’ll remember someone who seemed to be good at everything.  They were fast on the track, played in a band, made 1st grade teams, aced their exams and also managed to be popular with the girls or boys.  Maybe this was you, maybe you just watched in awe.  Either way, these people seem to be able to perform all of the time.  No matter what they do, they always seem to be able to do it well.

Even though these people must have had a great time at school, I feel sorry for them now.  When school ended and they left for the real world, they would have got such a shock.  In the real world, nobody can excel at everything.  Nobody can win at everything.  Nobody performs all the time.

It is physically impossible for humans to do everything and do it well.  While the school system seems to imply that life is made up of only a few fixed activities, the real world is so much more complex than that.  We cannot go full tilt in every one of these areas and we are fools to try.  The only smart and sane way to live is to deliberately choose where and when we will excel.

This becomes a very hard decision.  How do you decide when to perform?  How do you decide what is important enough?  The only way that I know how to make that decision is to think about the effects of performing well and consider if they are worth the cost.  Every performance comes at a direct cost and also an oportunity cost.  Is this worth it?  Sometimes it is more valuable to settle for an average performance, as the cost will usually be much less and the benefits can still be enough.

Average performance in areas that aren’t important enough for us to strive for a top performance can actually be good for us.  An average performance can help us develop our humility.  We can begin to see that our lives are more than just succeeding at everything.  Our humility shows us that we are mortal, fallible and limited humans just like every one else. 

An average performance can help us recover.  If we push too hard at too many things we will eventually burn out.  Cruising to an average performance at work or play, will give our body, mind and spirit time to catch up.  High performance wears you down, deliberately choosing average performance sometimes, can rebuild you.

An average performance gives you the time and space to watch.  Proceeding at less than 100% gives you the chance to watch the world at work.  When you are flying at 100%, everything seems a blur, but if you are travelling at a more relaxed pace you have time to work on your skills, technique and competence.

Finally, an average performance lets you focus on achieving spectacular results in other areas.  Exceptional performances take a lot of time, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment.  Freeing up these resources by settling for some average performances along the way will help you reach your highest goals more effectively. 

The alternative is getting carried away with our pride and ego.  When this happens we see every situation, every encounter as a test of our abilities.  This very quickly becomes a frustrating and circular world where we seek to support our concept of ourselves by trying to prove our worth every time.  Pointless and impossible.

This idea tells us that sometimes we have to relax our expectations and how much we put into some activities.  It also warns us that some things, though impressive, are simply not worth what they cost.  Deciding which things to cruise and even which to back out of, is a very personal matter.  What is an easy decision for me might be a difficult decision for you.  This is simply because the cost and the value of anything are different for each of us.  This is one of the primary drivers of diversity in humans.  We are defined, in part, by our priorities and how they are expressed in our actions.  It is up to us to closely inspect our priorities so that we can honestly say that we are performing in areas that are important to us.

What do you put to much into, when you consider the cost and its value to you?  Where are you over-performing at the expense of what is really important to you?  

Thanks

Tom