Latest / Business for Humans / Nobody Told You to Push to Your Maximum

Transcript

Nobody Told You to Push to Your Maximum · Business for Humans

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  I'm Jamie Gennaro, business coach, consultant, and founder of Practica Consulting.
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  In today's episode of Business for Humans, I talk about pushing yourself to your maximum.
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  I talk about the importance of sustaining your energy so that you can stop resenting
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  your work and start having more fun. Enjoy.
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  This week, I'm so proud because I committed to my workouts. And let me tell you what that means.
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  I am fairly disciplined. I am pretty good at getting myself up and out.
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  What I'm not good at is doing it super consistently. So I'm always on top of
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  eating well and on top of sleeping well and all of that.
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  But I never like double down I'm never like every day or every other day consistently
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  I'm just kind of like oh yeah I haven't worked out okay gotta do that and but
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  I've been really low energy and,
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  looking at my diet wondering if maybe I'm getting enough vitamins and all of
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  that and so I just decided well let me just double down on exercise this week
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  and see how it makes me feel wholly bejesus.
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  It's so different.
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  And I'm only saying this because I tried some new things on this week.
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  I dropped the pressure to do certain things. Like I used to love running and
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  I hate it now, really hate it.
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  And I've been trying to figure out a good workout routine where I don't feel
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  like I have to do that. But then I was like, maybe I do.
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  Maybe it's actually something I'm missing. And then I kind of was doing a lot
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  of research and realized I actually don't need to run, which is very exciting
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  for me as long as I stay committed to the practice that I'm in.
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  Okay, so why am I talking about this? I'm not trying to brag.
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  But I do feel very strong and very proud and very energetic and I want to keep doing it.
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  What I always tell people is I don't exercise for the way I look.
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  I exercise for the way I feel and I feel so good.
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  I want to keep feeling like this. I don't want to go back to feeling how I was
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  feeling. So that's a reason why
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  I stay committed because I like the way it feels. And that's a motivator.
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  And if I don't look a certain way, if I'm not like looking for an outcome about
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  the way I look and then I never get there, then I might give up.
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  But if I feel good, then I want to keep doing it. So that's that.
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  So what came of mixing things up and doing things a little differently this
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  week was that I went to a Pilates class and the teacher was Italian, which was really fun.
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  We were chit-chatting a little bit. She was like, oh, have you done Pilates?
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  I'm like, I have, but I mainly do yoga.
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  I got my ass kicked.
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  It was so hard. If I thought I was in good shape in that class,
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  I was like, oh dang, I need to push a little more.
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  But she said something so great, and I've been holding on to it ever since.
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  It's been a few days, and I've just been like, this nugget was so good.
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  So she was encouraging us, don't go to your maximum, because we're going to
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  do this movement it a few times. And if you go to your maximum on time one,
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  you're never going to make it to time five.
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  So she's like, don't go to your maximum. I'm being very sincere and honest about this.
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  Just take it maybe, you know, 40% and then you can build into it.
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  You can go further your last round, but don't go 100%.
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  And then she's looking around and some people just push, push, push.
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  She's looking around and she was like, nobody told you you had to go to your maximum.
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  And then I was like, oh, man, for my burnout clients, this is gold.
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  The reason, well, not the reason, but one of the reasons why we get into burnout
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  is because we push ourselves because of all the reasons.
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  We're proving ourselves. We know our potential. We want to push ourselves to
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  the very maximum because we know it feels good and it shows us what we're capable of doing.
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  But if you push yourself to that level you just can't sustain it that's what
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  she told us at the beginning of the class if you go to your maximum you're not
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  going to be able to get to round five,
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  and so some of us push ourselves to the maximum because we're like look how
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  great we are we can push all the way to the edge but we can't stay there,
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  and we forget that we can't stay there and then we get to that edge and we're like,
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  beating ourselves up because we're tired and we can't sustain it and we can't
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  stay there but we knew we could stay there at one point and then we feel guilty
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  and then all the things start spiraling.
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  And why do we do it? We think we have to.
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  We think there's some teacher watching us all the time that's going to pat us on the back.
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  We think our manager is going to recognize the hard work. We think we're going
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  to get promoted and recognized.
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  Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't.
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  What she said was just so key. Nobody told you you had to go to your maximum.
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  Them. Nobody told you you had to put in 150%. The expectation has always been 75%.
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  And I say that from a very true math brain.
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  When I work with CEOs on looking at their team and their capacity and the revenue
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  potential of that team, we look at capacity very deeply.
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  How many hours do people have? How many billable hours do they have?
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  Is there time mixed in there for admin? I worked at a place one time and they
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  were like, oh, we're setting capacity at 95%. I was like, that's burnout.
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  If you're setting capacity at 95%, you're expecting people to be billable at 95%.
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  And so you're giving them like one hour a week to do all the other things they
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  might need to do. Not cool.
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  But so capacity is a real thing. And if you're setting your team's capacity
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  at 100%, that's just not going to work.
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  That is not sustainable whatsoever. And every business owner knows you cannot
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  set them at 40 hours of billable time per week.
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  It makes your profit margins look great, but those people cannot sustain at
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  that level over that amount of time.
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  No one can. So no one is expecting you to go at 100%.
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  Most of you who are in burnout or who are super high achievers that don't realize
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  you're in burnout yet, you go to 150%.
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  I mean there are two kinds of burnout there's burnout that you push yourself
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  too hard and then there's burnout of like you're in an environment that is not
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  the right fit and you just keep banging your head against the wall so we're
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  I'm not talking about that one today,
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  I'm talking about the over giving over serving over proving over doing,
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  nobody told you to go to your maximum it's just so gold,
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  so if no one told you why are you going to your maximum and that is ultimately
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  the question as a coach that i spend the most time on why.
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  So if you are one of these people, a high achieving person that feels like you're
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  either on the edge of burnout or you're in burnout, I would say just pause here.
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  Even if you're taking a walk, okay, maybe if you're driving,
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  maybe you're not pausing.
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  But if you're taking a walk or you're sitting down somewhere,
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  just pause this podcast and really think deeply about this. why am I going to my maximum?
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  If I know it's not sustainable, if I know I won't get to round five pushing
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  to the very edge, why am I doing it? The answer is different for everyone.
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  But that answer is the key to unlocking a change in the way that you work.
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  Because there is no guilt, there is no shame there is nothing wrong with going to 75 percent,
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  i talk to clients a lot about this concept of b minus work and for overachievers
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  they're like fuck b minus i do not want to be b minus i want to be at the top
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  of my game and here's what i'm going to say,
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  your life is more than this job okay and if you're in a business owner this is a hundred.
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  And a hundred thousand percent true for you that you have to understand this
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  your life is more than this job if you give a hundred and fifty percent at work there is,
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  less there is negative to have remaining for the other parts of your life that
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  are vital to you being able to sustain this job,
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  over time or this company over time.
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  You cannot give your maximum. I'm sorry.
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  You can't. And it doesn't mean your work has to suffer. Like I do work with
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  one particular business owner who their commitment to misspelling words.
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  I know it's not doing that on purpose, but I can tell how fast they're moving,
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  by how many misspelled words there are.
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  And those misspelled words are going out to the public. And I'm not shaming
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  because I send out mistakes often and sometimes you just got to let it go.
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  But if you're in a professional space, it does not look great to be misspelling words.
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  And what I try to remind people is if you're pushing yourself to your maximum, guess what?
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  What starts to falter if we're in like this fitness mindset is your alignment's
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  going to be off, your form's going to be off when you're pushing yourself to the maximum.
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  But if you let off a little bit, your alignment can be strong,
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  your posture can be strong, you can do more repetitions,
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  without getting to that maximum where you're so fatigued, you're broken the
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  rest of the day, or you've pushed your muscles so hard that you literally can't
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  get out of bed the next day.
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  People think that's what you're supposed to do. It's not.
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  Who told you you had to go to your maximum, that you had to push to the line?
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  Well, you did. Somewhere in your past, you got rewarded for this.
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  And maybe you're still getting rewarded for it.
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  But over time, it will start to break you down.
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  It's funny because we think that there's always like a hack.
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  Well, I can push myself to the maximum if I take more creatine.
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  Or if I eat more bananas, I can keep pushing.
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  Why do you feel like you need to keep pushing? That is the ultimate question.
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  What is better about pushing yourself to the maximum, pushing yourself to the
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  line, pushing yourself to burnout, How is that better?
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  I'm not saying go the other way, okay? So sometimes people interpret this like,
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  oh, okay, I just do whatever I want, whenever I want. I just float through my day.
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  I only do things that feel good and feel aligned. No.
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  So let's go back to the beginning of my conversation. The reason I feel good
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  about consistency in my workout is because I'm following what feels good, but it's not easy.
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  So if you're wanting to grow your business and you're just pushing maximum,
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  maximum, maximum, working 10 hours a day, 10 hours a day, 10 hours a day,
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  you're going to start resenting the work.
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  It's not always about feeling good, but you're like pushing yourself for no
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  reason except to push yourself because it feels productive.
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  So if we go back to neutral, it's like we're not going into a space where we're
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  never pushing ourselves, where we're just floating, there's a level of taking action and.
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  But then there's the taking action and sustaining that action over time versus
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  pushing yourself so hard that you can't do it the next day, that you're broken
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  down. I keep saying come back to neutral.
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  There's a neutral version of this where you just feel like you can drive at
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  55 miles an hour forever. ever.
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  But if you increase your speed, and this happens to me sometimes if I'm driving
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  through Europe and then I get to Germany and everybody's driving like 5,000
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  kilometers an hour and I'm like, holy shit, blah, and I get all stressed out
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  and then I start driving really bad.
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  And I'm worried about what everyone else is doing and I'm like,
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  oh shit, keep up, keep up, blah.
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  And even in Italy, driving in Italy is a little bit insane, especially in cities.
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  And so if I'm on the highway in Italy and then I have to go 130 to me coming
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  from the Netherlands where we like barely get over 60.
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  I'm like 130. We have this thing of like I have to keep up. I got to push.
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  Everybody's doing it. I got to keep up with them. But if you just find that
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  neutral pace, if you just find that speed and of course you have to drive the speed limit.
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  But if you find that speed where you're like, whoa, I could just chill.
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  Like, I'm listening to music. I'm having fun.
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  I'm not stressed out. I could drive for days.
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  That's what we're looking for. It's maybe slightly uncomfortable.
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  You have to pay attention.
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  It's not like you can close your eyes and just like chill. It's not an automated driving vehicle yet.
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  You're still driving. You're still focused.
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  You're still having to get where you're going, focused on that future place where you're going.
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  But you don't have to be driving 5,000 kilometers an hour and get there faster
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  than anyone. Like, I got there faster. Look at me. Like, okay,
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  there's no fucking prize.
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  There's no prize when you get there first. Except you didn't have fun along the way.
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  You were super stressed out. you were so focused on getting there first.
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  For what? Now you just have to sit there and wait.
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  You have to wait for everyone else. So there's no award at the end of I pushed myself into burnout.
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  The worst, and I can say this from experience, is that most people don't know
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  it's happening. You've set a bar so high.
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  The expectation that people have of you is so high that that's just what they
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  expect. They don't know that you're pushing yourself into this very uncomfortable level.
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  And when you drop off they're just like oh you didn't say anything i didn't
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  know that you were pushing yourself so hard why did you do that,
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  if you needed help why didn't you ask for help why didn't you delegate more
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  why didn't you lean into your manager people are always confused when you just
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  burn to a crisp because there were so many opportunities for you to speak up
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  but we just think that this is the level that where we're gonna get the most kudos
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  and appreciation and recognition.
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  And it doesn't come. If you don't have a good manager who's really looking and
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  reading between the lines, you're going to get zero recognition for how hard you're working.
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  And I will say this across the board. It's going to happen in your house.
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  You're going to push super hard in your house.
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  You're going to be doing above and beyond, and no one's going to notice.
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  There's no gold star at the end where someone's going to go,
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  I've seen you. I mean, I see you.
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  I recognize your work because I know. But no one else is going to give you an
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  award. You're not going to get special accommodations. You're not going to get
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  an extra week off of work.
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  They're not going to appreciate you for the extra work that you're doing.
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  And I say this a lot to my clients who are employees. Is it worth it?
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  You are not a partner in this company. You do not own this company,
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  but you're driving and pushing yourself as if you do, as if there's some big payout coming.
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  And again, I will tell you, after years of grinding myself to that place,
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  acting like I own the place, I didn't.
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  And I got screwed multiple times. A company getting sold. I helped it get sold.
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  I helped it grow and get to that place. Did I get anything for it? No.
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  What I did was fundamental because it was with working with the money and with
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  the CFO and cleaning up all the shit that was going to help make it possible
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  for due diligence to come in and look at stuff.
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  I did it before knowing they were getting sold, so it was all clean.
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  By the time the company came in to do due diligence, everything was like buttoned up.
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  You're welcome. The first job where I ground myself to a pulp,
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  acted like I owned the place, I got laid off.
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  While I was on my very first vacation, I hadn't taken vacation in like two years,
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  I took one vacation, they laid me off while I was on vacation.
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  Did anyone care? No. Did I grow their business and make them money? Yes. Fuck them.
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  They didn't recognize the amount of work that went into it.
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  It was not my place to grind myself to a pulp. It wasn't their responsibility
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  to keep me from doing that. It was my responsibility to keep myself from doing
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  that. Why did I do it? For all my reasons. And now I know.
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  And now I don't do it anymore. And I don't do it in my own business either.
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  Because I want to run this business for the next 20 years. I love what I do.
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  What's really great, what my clients tell me, is that they all feel like they're my only client.
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  That is the magic. I get to give people the time and attention that they deserve
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  because I'm not overwhelmed, overstretched, over giving in other places.
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  What I want is to give people an experience of working with me where this is very truly one-on-one.
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  They get my best brain. If I'm spread too thin and trying to do a bunch of stuff
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  in the weeds and trying to take on this and taking on the work of the people
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  that I hired to do that at work and not delegating and all that stuff,
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  I'm not going to be able to do my job well, right?
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  We're not paying attention to our form.
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  We're misspelling words.
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  All that stuff starts to break down.
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  Okay, so hopefully a few minutes ago you paused. You asked yourself that question,
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  why do I feel like I need to push myself to the maximum?
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  And if you get an answer, then that's the thought that's been propelling you
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  for a long time. I don't think I'm good enough.
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  I need to prove myself. I'm too young for this job. That thought is really key
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  because we need to work on building a bridge from that thought to a new thought
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  that doesn't put you into this overworking spiral.
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  We need to give you permission to lean out.
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  So that thought, let's just say I'm not good enough. Okay.
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  Gives you a feeling. And that feeling you feel inside of your body.
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  It's not just a word. It's a sensation.
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  So I'm not good enough might make you insecure.
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  And that insecurity shows up in your body.
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  It shows up in the office. It
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  shows up when you're going to talk to your boss. And guess what it does?
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  Insecurity keeps you from asking for help because you feel like you should know
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  how to do it. You shouldn't have to ask anyone.
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  This is part of your past of overpushing, overpushing, proving, proving, proving.
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  So you don't ask for help because you're insecure.
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  So if that insecurity is driving some kind of behavior at work where you're
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  not asking for help, you're not leaning into your manager, you're not,
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  you know, if you're the owner of the company, you're not leaning into a coach
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  potentially or someone who can help you
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  objectively look at the way you're working and see if there's another way to do it.
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  There is another way. This is the other blocker for some people,
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  like, but this way has been working. Well, is it working? Because you wouldn't
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  be listening to this podcast if it was working.
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  There's something about this that's resonating with you where you're like,
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  I'm so tired. I don't want to get up tomorrow and do this.
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  We need to sustain the energy over time. We need to keep our form.
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  We need to keep ourselves focused on the work that's in our zone of genius,
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  the work that we do really well. We have to stay there. We have to be able to sustain it.
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  Don't go to your maximum. There is another way. So if you're feeling that insecurity,
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  that's one thing. Maybe there are other feelings that are coming up for you.
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  So just notice them. There's a lot of noise outside my window.
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  I don't know what's happening. sounds like a party.
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  It's really hot. It's like 10 a.m. and it's, I think, 30. It's crazy.
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  People are going nuts in the Netherlands. They're like, son,
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  we've never seen you before.
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  So anyway, know for yourself what that thought is and what that feeling is and
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  how it's having you show up in a certain way at work.
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  And then we want to build a bridge to I am enough.
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  I am perfectly fine doing it at 85%.
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  And then work through all the things you feel like it might mean about you.
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  Like, am I lazy if I go to 85? No.
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  Like, if I'm doing super good reps with a good strong weight and I'm doing it
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  at 85%, but I can do it for five minutes. Amazing.
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  I am not shaming myself about that. I think that is fantastic.
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  Think about that thought that you can bridge into and you might not immediately
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  believe it. Like I am enough.
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  Might take you some time to try it on.
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  But there's a feeling from that. And that feeling is what's going to sustain you.
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  When I go to a class, I'm like, I am strong.
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  I may not be able to do it at my maximum, but my goal is to make it through
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  the class without stopping, not because I have to prove something,
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  but because it feels really good.
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  And it's not going to be easy, but I'm also not going to push myself to the
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  maximum. I'm going to stay at the level where I can sustain this level of energy
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  for the full hour and I'm going to leave feeling proud of what I was able to accomplish.
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  That pride will take you far and you deserve it. You deserve it. You deserve it.
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  You don't have to do anything, and you still deserve everything.
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  You're still good enough.
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  If you don't do the dishes, you're still a good person. You're not lazy.
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  If you're prioritizing things, you're doing it because you have a reason.
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  So, nobody told you. You had to push to your maximum.
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  Hold on to that. See how it applies
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  in your life. I'm going to leave it at that. Talk to you next week.
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  Okay, guys, if this episode resonated with you, it's time to get in touch.
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  Fall coaching spots are open now, and I know it's only June,
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  but spots are filling up surprisingly fast, like surprising to me too.
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  So to learn more about my coaching programs, book a call with me through my
• 23:51
  website, practica.consulting.
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  Get some free coaching and we'll figure out your best next move at work.
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  Don't wait. There's too much at stake.