In yesterday’s Meeting of the Titans, the Member in focus shared his feelings of overwhelm related to having a lack of some of the right people in his business and his immediate plans to expand into new states. He is also finalising the exit of his business partner, which has increased the feeling of pressure, as he takes over the business.
His sharing raised an interesting question which was relevant for us all:
When we are feeling under pressure, where is the pressure actually coming from?
At first glance it could be easy to say it’s coming from the volume of work, lack of Team members, stack of emails, number of fires to put out, external deadlines etc etc. But on closer inspection and having taken a step back, a more likely truth is that most (if not all) of the pressure is actually coming from within.
It’s the pressure we put on ourselves to be better, do more, cover more ground and to have it done yesterday.
The reality of imposing urgency on ourselves which doesn’t need to be there, because we have an inbuilt need for it to be achieved as fast as possible, was something which many of the Brains Trust related to.
But does all that pressure and urgency really mean we achieve things faster?
I’m sure we’ve all had experiences to show that in fact it doesn’t; and the studies also back that up. You may have heard the adage that ‘When stress goes up, intelligence goes down’, meaning that when we are working under stressful or pressurised conditions, we can actually be impaired in terms of ability to problem solve, discernment, focus, efficiency and inspiration. All the things that we would want to have on our side for a smooth and swift implementation of anything that is worth doing.
How to strike the balance between having a healthy drive, and pushing ourselves up against unnecessary or unreasonable deadlines and expectations which increase stress and decrease enjoyment is worth contemplating. As always, it’s the inner work such as meditation, heart-breathing and other tools we use in the Club, which makes the discernment between the two much more easily identifiable.
Enjoying what we’re doing whilst we’re doing it, rather than projecting our happiness onto a future achievement or destination is a key benefit of this. After all, none of us know how long we’ve got on this journey, and that surely makes every moment worth enjoying.
