FINDING YOUR SUSTAINABLE PACE

Everyone is holding on to this belief that the harder they work and get through their To Do list, the more results they will see. But let’s be real, the “let’s get shit done” attitude does just that … gets poor quality (ie. shit) work done. 

Let me share with you another approach to entrepreneurship and business.

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The alternative to hustle and burn out mode is the tortoise – it’s not slow, it’s smarter. It’s not about constantly aiming for the low hanging fruit or chasing output after output, it’s about stepping back, pausing and considering how the outcome and impact of your outputs can be amplified by building in more than just a transactional movement from A to B.

I call this sustainable pace.

There are two key elements to the sustainable pace approach – a reconnection with the human element in your business (ie. you!) and an opening up to complexity and possibility.

Focussing on you and your sustainable pace

What would your work day look like if your first meeting of the day was a meeting or check-in with yourself? A dedicated time to not just let your digital calendar and inbox tell you what tasks need to be completed, but actually switching on how you’re feeling, what sort of work will suit your mood that day and how you need to be that day?

Rather than logging straight into your inbox and immediately being at the beck and call of others (ie. react mode), taking the time to meet with yourself each morning allows you to connect with how you want to respond to the day ahead.

Beyond the daily check-in, how do you plan your week? Do you even plan at all or just blip through the To Do list and requests popping into your inbox? Is this what you are measuring as successful an empty or relatively empty inbox? And are those things getting done adding up to moving the bigger goals?

Sustainable pace is about taking the time to step back and look at how you’re working. It’s about checking in and noticing when you feel in flow and when you’re just pushing through because you feel the need to “hustle”.

Once you set your own sustainable pace, then you can extend these skills to your team allowing you to all work at your best and achieve the best, most impactful, outcomes possible.

Staying open to complexity and possibility

The other bonus of the tortoise approach to working is that suddenly your foot is off the pedal and you have time to pause, reflect, and most importantly, think.

Our modern world has trained us to sit happily in distraction mode – we are constantly on auto-pilot use to constant multitasking, being constantly available and connected to others through our devices, and generally hopping around like busy little hares.

When you adopt a sustainable pace approach to work, you start to see the value of creating time to think. Allowing yourself and your team the time to sit in complexity and ponder what are the other possibilities that aren’t currently evident? Rather than rushing to find answers, you have the ability to dream big and consider ideas that might seem crazy and unachievable at first.  

This is how I run my client workshops, holding the space for foundhers to stay in divergent thinking without immediately rushing to an action plan and solution. When we embrace the uncertainty, we open ourselves to real change and impact.

So, are you and your team working at a sustainable pace?