Push Through to the Ease
“I’ll have to push through really hard to get this project finished up.”
My client, a successful service-based entrepreneur, still relied on a familiar (and ever-popular in Silicon Valley) Redline and Crash approach to productivity. In her current state of anxiety, her ability to consider alternatives narrowed. She prepared herself for what she anticipated as inevitable pain and suffering in the name of high performance.
At the moment, I understood and empathized with her choice. As a business owner and high performance consultant, I’ve always leaned into my strong work ethic (aka push) to get me through times of commitments and deadlines. Honed through strict discipline as an elite figure skater through young adulthood, and then through over a decade of living and breathing efficiency in high tech startups, my ability to manage stress and push through on adrenaline had always been my best friend in a pinch.
But it wasn’t a sustainable strategy for quality work or professional fulfillment.
Through the years, I’ve learned to approach things a little differently in the name of higher quality output, improved focus, and less stress. These days, I prefer more ease and balance in my working life, even when the push is required – same work ethic, coupled with more planning, sanity, joy, and self-kindness.
To help her relax, my client and I discussed this perspective as I offered alternative approaches to her sometimes relentless drive to produce:
First, I encouraged her to recognize and honor that the pushing through is a valid productivity strategy ... under certain conditions. Sometimes, pushing yourself is necessary to keep your commitments, particularly those you’ve made to yourself. By not judging how you’ve approached your work in the past, you avoid feeling self-doubt and/or resistance to getting the job done, and it’s easier to just begin.
Second, we decided the pushing strategy works best when you work mindfully. You can find ease throughout your process by being aware of - and implementing from - a few key performance perspectives:
Redefine “push” as “focus.” There can be ease and flow within the focus if you choose a different perspective at the onset of your work. Push if you must, but do so while you’re focused on your task at hand.
Let easy be okay. In my book on mindset for high performance, Leap: Own Your Excellence and Engage Your Best Self, I emphasize the importance of not judging your performance's value by how hard you worked for it. This philosophy holds true for anything you do, from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro to preparing a pitch deck to building a new training curriculum.
See your outcome as complete. Imagine - yes, visualize - the ease you’ll feel on the other side of completing your work. You’ll begin with more motivation and certainty that you’ll get across your finish line.
Maintain balance. By building in brief breaks and rest, you’ll be better able to re-focus when you return to your work. Balance is dynamic, so staying present to your needs in real time allows you to push ... mindfully.
Finally, I encouraged her to approach excellence with kindness - to herself, to her process, and towards her results. With positivity and balance in her pace, she more easily committed to the work and thus ended up with the quality results she aimed to produce.
So, to you, high performers: the next time you’re up against a tight deadline, consider the alternative perspective my client found so helpful.
Go ahead and push, if needed.
If you do so with more ease and commitment to self-kindness, the quality and timeliness of what you can accomplish may surprise you.
Most importantly, you will have pushed through to the inevitable ease and pride on the other side of your focused efforts.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and connect with you here on LinkedIn.