After I finish writing this piece, I will post it to my website, which runs on WordPress. I will enhance the post using my website’s editing tools and plugins. I will insert at least one picture from one of two sites that allows anyone to use their pictures for free (thank you Pixabay and Unsplash!) After posting to my website, I will share this in my LinkedIn groups, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook business page (which I created and maintain). Then, I will share it via email to my mailing list which has been cultivated through a number of channels, including a pop up on my site. I will track the post’s reach through Google Analytics and my social media metrics. Finally, on the last Thursday of the month, I will include it in my monthly newsletter that I will create through Mailchimp.
Three years into my business, this has become a weekly ritual for me, and I do it with ease and little thought. Three years ago, however, I didn’t know how to do any of it. Back then, the above paragraph may as well have been written in a foreign language, because all of it was foreign to me at the time. I can still remember the fear I could physically feel before I clicked send on my first email blast. I can still remember the first time I went into the backend of my website and was convinced that any single push of a button would destroy it. Now, every Thursday, I fill up my iced coffee, sit at my living room table, put on an old rerun (currently working through SVU- see you next decade) and go through the process almost mindlessly.
And why in the world am I telling you this?
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of attending a Community Impact Leadership Institute put on by the United Way of Central Maryland. It was a day filled with motivation, inspiration and reflection. The keynote, Generosity Inc. CEO Jamie McDonald, spoke about How People Accomplish Big Things and she included a 10-step guide to follow. One of the steps that stood out most to me is the one she called “Look Back Down the Mountain”. This step, she explained, is one of the easiest to do but one of the most commonly ignored. It is the step that involves taking the time to look back at what you have accomplished as you continue to climb toward accomplishing big things.
For people who want to accomplish big things, there is a tendency to forge ahead, in many cases at a frenetic pace. They continue from goal to goal, milestone to milestone with a nearly insatiable hunger to keep on going. They rarely, if ever, stop to look back. There are many wonderful consequences of this style, not the least of which is a consistent and constant record of accomplishment. The shadow side of this, however, is often a lack of understanding of and appreciation for what has already been done. This is troublesome for a number of reasons.
For starters, acknowledging and celebrating success is a crucial component of employee satisfaction. To be successful, people need to know their work is recognized and appreciated. In the famous Gallup12, researchers found that being praised at work is one of the most important determinants of staff satisfaction. To be effective, this recognition must be both genuine and frequent. Research has shown that staff respond best when the praise to criticism ratio is around 5 to 1.
Secondly, when you look back, you have the opportunity to learn. Reflecting creates space to really understand the process and determine what went well and what could be improved going forward. When we do not take this time to reflect, most of us keep doing the same things in the same way without ever really knowing their effectiveness and impact. Reflecting provides the opportunity to highlight and identify what should continue as well as what needs adjusting. Mistakes are a natural part of the process, of course, but that does not mean you need to keep making the same ones over and over again. Shake it up a little and make some new ones for a change.
Thirdly, the mountain you are climbing may feel ominous at times. Maybe you have several mountains in your sights. At times you may feel overwhelmed and even defeated. When you look back and remind yourself how far you have come, it can be an important motivator to keep on going. Like me, you may have begun to take for granted those tasks, skills, processes and milestones that once seemed daunting if not impossible. Take the time to remember. Remember the fear, the anxiety, the discomfort you felt and compare it to the ease and comfort you now feel having learned and overcome the challenge. Remind yourself that you have done this repeatedly throughout your journey and that you are more than capable of doing it again. Remind yourself that almost anything is learnable and that almost anything is doable if you believe it to be and invest the time to get there.
Lastly, even the most energetic and determined of us is in danger of exhaustion and burnout. Our bodies and minds simply are not built for constant motion and work. Even the good Lord gave Himself a day of rest. Working without sufficient breaks and rest is not merely unpleasant- it is inefficient. Research shows that there is a dramatic decrease in productivity when we work more than 50 hours per week . In addition to being inefficient, it is also dangerous. We know that excessive work causes an increased risk of several health problems including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and depression. Further, most managers cannot tell the difference when you are actually working longer hours and when you are simply faking it. So maybe try faking it for a while.
There is nothing wrong with being ambitious, hard-working and focused. These gifts are necessary to achieve success, in whatever iteration that takes for you. But an integral part of being successful is being ambitious, hard-working and focused on the right things in the right way. This must include an intentional and authentic plan to look back as well as forward, to look back in order to look forward. I hope you enjoy the view.
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