When called to, most people are capable of moving mountains. We can pull the 24 hour day, the all-nighter, the stay-at-work-till-its-done. And rightfully so, we should be proud of that.
But what about when there isn't urgency? What is our default setting? Ask yourself:
- Are you getting ahead at work each day, or are you waiting until the XO or your DH comes knocking on your door?
- Are you putting in a normal day every day, or do you skip out as quickly as possible, only to be later surprised by long hours?
- Are you keeping a list of backburner projects to tackle when you have some down time, or are you only working on what happens to be the focus of the day?
Truth is, most people don't seem to worry about what their default is, but by its very nature, our default setting (how our average day goes) is what really defines us. Sure, we like to celebrate the big victories...those become our sea stories that we tell others when we brag about ourselves. But if we truly embrace sustained, superior performance we'll start looking at what our average day entails. Likely you won't like what you see, but the great thing is that we're easily capable of changing it without a lot of effort.
Seth Godin has some thoughts on this as well.
