CEO Blog - Time Leadership

Marathon pacing

I am immersed in a big deal right now. This gives me high energy while at the same time, leaving little time to do my regular job. I feel I am falling behind and need my team to pick up the things I need to drop.

While doing a deal, I can tend to overdo it. Work too long. Ignore balance.

Life is a marathon – I believe in setting a pace I can maintain forever. Yes there will be a few hills (like now when it is deal time) and sometimes the odd sprint to pass someone but largely set a pace you can maintain forever.

One thing I like about maintaining a great TODO list is it helps me to know how busy I am and whether I can take anything else on.

To maintain the equilibrium in my life, I follow the axiom of taking something off my commitment list if I add something. When someone asks me to take on a new position or new task, I look at what I have on my plate and figure out which one(s) I am going to delegate or drop.

I am highly goal oriented. Having too audacious of goals or too many of them can create goal burn out. I realize this particularly at a time like this. I need a bit of space in my life so I can handle the important things that come into my life.

Part of it is giving myself permission to pace myself. I still have a problem with setting too high of a standard on myself. I can accomplish more than most people but because it is not everything I set for myself, I can not feel accomplished. I am trying to learn to congratulate myself on my successes.

Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a day and underestimate what they can accomplish in a year or a decade. It is truly amazing what can be accomplished by continual long term push in a direction.

posted by Jim Estill @ 11:13 PM