What To Do When Your Work Sucks
It’s true.You’re not always going to perform at your peak.That’s the thing about peaks.It’s the next thing, after the peak, that’s the most important, though.It’s what you do when you are no longer at your best.Guess what?
Here’s the unpopular and kinda scary answer:
Do it anyway.Unless a lot of lives are riding on your success rate being 99.99999999%, I’d say you’re probably among the rest of us who have to deal with imperfection being a larger probability.I have plenty of mistakes in my blog posts. I have them on my website and on Medium.I’ve done some pretty mediocre TV interviews, and I’ve put together some crummy Facebook ads.I’ve done some pretty ugly work in front of a lot of people.But guess what? I’m still alive, I still have an ambitious career, and my output is still relentless.The peak is the peak. Great job getting there.But now it’s time to talk about the dip that comes afterward, the most important time to focus on.
2 Minute Action:
When was the last peak you had?Could be work, personal, whatever—that’s not the point.What happened after the peak, during the decline?What might you do differently this time?Let me know in the comments what your strategies are for rebounding and recovering. We can bring these strategies to the Facebook group and talk more about implementation.For now, today, take 2 minutes to hit the “send” button, publish the articles make the call, or whatever it is.It’s up to you to take responsibility for your ups and downs. No one else is going to do it for you.
The Trick About Peak Performance
It's the peak.That's it.It's not sustainable. It's not feasible under most conditions. It's not the goal.It's good to have peak performance as a benchmark to measure what you're capable of, but to expect it all the time will lead to discouragement.It's more productive/profitable to seek Productive Performance, which is a term I just made up.It signifies a level of output that is sustainable over time, tough to shake under life's difficulties, and it promotes a state of happiness and flow.What's your Productive Performance output? It's probably ~80% of your Peak Performance.It's high enough to feel a little uncomfortable every day, but it's not consuming all of your resources or requiring a "crash day" after your project ends.Everyone is different, so it's your responsibility to figure out your Productive Performance rate (how many hours of work, what kind of labor is most exhausting for you, etc.) and solve for x.School definitely didn't teach this, so it's up to you.The planet needs you.Let's focus. Let's do this.
2 Minute Action
When was the last time you pulled an all-nighter?Do you remember how it felt?When was the last time you worked on a project and felt ready for the next challenge after you finished?Take 2 minutes to compare those moments in your life and give yourself your best guess about what kind of work excites/energizes you, what kind of work drains you, and how many hours it takes before you need to crash and reboot.Having this insight in the back of your mind will help you maximize your output across the rest of your career.