Motivation Information |
After the Big Project: Recovering From Success
My older daughter got married 10 days ago. The wedding was a joyous and extraordinary experience, way beyond our imaginings. I am deeply happy about all of this, and feel strongly validated by the whole experience. On a project level, the wedding was a very satisfying culmination of a huge team effort. The logistics worked perfectly - the months of intensive work and the last several weeks of even more intensive (possibly crazy) work paid off. So, what happens after an experience like this? After you get the job, have the baby, launch the global initiative, publish the book, or finish the house renovations? As your life gradually returns to "normal," you assimilate the new experience into your sense of your self. You let it in. You acclimate to the new altitude, look around, see what's different, what's the same. But mostly, you're exhausted and depleted. You need a period of recovery. Achievers forget this so easily. You are groomed to be industrious and effective, but not to allow for recovery or transition between projects. Let me share something with you from deep inside the experience of recovery. It's challenging. I know I'm exhausted at a deep level, and I'm taking care of myself in ways (I have learned) that work for me. Now that I've caught up on sleep, I'm keeping my schedule light -- refraining from filling my calendar. And I'm explicitly re-charging my batteries in a variety of ways. But I'm chafing. I'm judging my relative inactivity. I'm annoyed at myself for not having the energy or enthusiasm for a new project. Now, mind you, as a coach I KNOW this territory of transition! I know there's typically an energy drop after a big project, a letdown, that there is a rhythm to these things and it makes sense to work WITH the rhythms. I regularly coach other people through transitions, and it's still hard. Bottom line, it's just a lot more fun to be onto the next big project. And I'm not there yet. How hard is it for you to recover from the culmination of a huge project or life-event? And what's it like for the other people in your life - your staff, your family, your boss? Most of us expect ourselves to bounce forward from challenge to challenge without letup. (And certainly there are times in our lives when no letup is possible.) But the most efficient way to climb a mountain is NOT to just charge straight up it, non-stop. Less experienced climbers are more likely to attempt the straight-up route, and they are prone to early burnout, injury, devastating fatigue. The most efficient way to climb a mountain is to take it in stages. Between stages, experienced climbers stop, eat, sleep, rest, and adjust to the new altitude. Many of us want to take our lives as a non-stop mountain climb, when in fact we are better served to stop from time to time and recover from the last stage of the climb. Sometimes all that's required is to keep your schedule light after a big deadline. To plan a weekend at a bed and breakfast after the proposal is due, after the product launch, after you deliver the copy to the printer, after your son's last college application is due. Or to seriously under-promise what you will deliver in the few weeks after a major push. Try it. You may find that, like me, you chafe at the slower pace. But your high energy will return more quickly if you allow yourself the full process of recovery. If you find yourself perpetually drained and without energy for projects you truly care about, you may need to make some important course corrections in your career or work-life balance. Contact me for an initial consultation at no charge. Copyright 2004, Sharon Teitelbaum. Sharon Teitelbaum is a Work-Life and Career Coach who works with high achieving women with young children, people at mid-career, and professionals seeking greater career satisfaction or work-life balance. Her book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance, is available at her website, http://www.STcoach.com. Certified as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), Sharon works by phone with clients around the world and in-person in Boston. She delivers keynotes and workshops on work-life balance issues, has been in national publications including The New York Times and Working Mother Magazine, and has appeared on cable and network television. She publishes Strategies for Change, a newsletter offering practical tips for work-life success. Sharon has been married for 30 years and is the mother of two amazing young women. You can contact her here.
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
The Simple Secret To Lasting Motivation This is a key to lasting motivation and beating procrastination.If you have friends who are highly driven business people, spend time with them whenever you want a motivational boost. What Once Was - Ain't No More Rather than beat around the bush and try to lead into this in a semi-logical manner, I'll get right to the point. The past is gone - vanished, disappeared in a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi, Ho Silver!" It is history, not real, mental vapor, and gone, gone, gone!"Yabutt?""Yabutt" nothing. Making Things Happen We are all given the tools, but it is up to us what we decide to build and how magnificent it will be.Steven FerrelGoals are fantastic to have, but many times challenges surface that make it difficult for a goal to mature. The New Morality In a world where dynamism alters egos and principles in a man every second, where men divest in tenets that secure them from being devout to something natural, where humanity seeks reasons to be ignorant just to feel sly and intelligent - we're confronted with issues of morality. We can no longer be satisfied with being truthful incessantly, we can no longer be happy for the sake of empathizing, we can no longer be sympathetic in a world that beseeches us to be methodological, we can no longer be human when the invariable pretension has made us lose our ethicality forever - we can only choose to be different moralists altogether. Get Started! Do Something! This is about getting started. Taking that first step. Stop Procrastination - Just do it! What stops you from 'getting things done?'Have you ever started your day with good intentions of completing a task or project only to find that by the end of the day you've hardly worked on it? Or have you ever set a goal to attend a seminar, learn a new skill or just have more time out for you?I'm sure you have. I'm not going to write a long-winded explanation about the art of procrastination or "putting things off" but what I will do is share with you the secret of actually "getting things done"?putting an end to procrastination and just getting on with it. Five Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd Some people are content to just to be another face in the crowd. By assuming this attitude, they are saying, in effect, to the rest of the world, I'm just average; there's nothing special about me. Around The World On $80 Jules Vernes adventure story, Around the World in 80 Days, stimulated the imagination of 26-year-old Robert Christopher."Why," he asked himself, "can't I go around the world on $80. The Time To Start Working On Your Dream is Now - Not Later Most of us are hesitant to start anything because we are afraid we might make a mistake or fail. Go ahead make mistakes! Don't wait for more experience or to be good enough to start. Overcoming Procrastination What are the reasons that YOU procrastinate?Are you a perfectionist?Do you procrastinate on projects that you dislike?Do you over schedule yourself?Do you have fear of failure?Or maybe fear of success?Perhaps you dislike or disagree with the person delegating the job?Do you lack clear goals?There are many reasons for procrastination, but only one result. Stress, anxiety, and a great amount of wasted time. The Power I had a friend ask me a question not to long ago that really led me to do some thinking. "How do you manage to stay so positive all the time?" You never seem to have "bad" days she said. Succeed Like the Super-Successful Two undeniable traits of the super-successful are: their belief in self, and an uncompromising expectation that they will succeed .. Limitations Real Or Imagined, Stick Em In A Pigs Eye! It's about time to take a real hard look at what you think about yourself. What do you really think you're capable of? What if I told you that you could walk on water? Would you believe me? Well, what if I told you that you could never be an important person? What would you say to that?Against All Hope!What you are capable of doing first and foremost rests with what's between your ears. Do Yourself A Favor--Forgive "Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." BuddhaI can't count high enough to number the people in my clinical office and in my seminars who have argued. Activity Versus Accomplishment Each and every day, all of us continually search for the extra edge to win at the sport of sales and marketing. One of the most important things that you need to know is that there is a thin line that exists between activity versus accomplishment. Break Free I received an email the other day from one of our customers. "Please help. Does Your Battery Need Recharging? A technical support person in a pager company tells the story of a customer call to the customer service center from a man who repeatedly complained he was being paged by "Lucille." He was instructed that he would have to call her and tell her to stop paging him. The Top Five Great Reasons to Delay Pursuing Your Dream 1.2. The Undeniable Power of a Mastermind Group A Mastermind is a group of individuals who are joined inpurpose. All bringing their collective talents andexperiences to the achievement of a common goal. Finding A Cure for I Disease The 21-year-old rookie cop had his big chance to brag on himself at his big news conference. "How do you feel about being the one to capture Eric Rudolph, FBI's Most Wanted?" the reporter asked. |
home | site map | contact us |