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Remember when you got your job or started your business? Do you remember that feeling of “I’ve arrived”? When you felt like it could never get better than this and that you would never feel bored or disgruntled or stale again? This is where you were born to be….
Then the honeymoon ends… You start feeling overwhelmed, under-appreciated, and bored. I mean…how and the hell can you be this stressed-out and bored at the same time?
What happened? Was this a classic case of the ‘grass is greener on the other side’? Or, is it YOU? Well….maybe……it is YOU.
Is it possible you are too darn intelligent, efficient, and innovative for your own good?
YES!
Whether or not your new job had a clear position description or your business had a clear business plan….you definitely knew what you would be doing and how you would be doing it. What happens….you brilliant professional you……is that you are in a meeting and the great ideas keep coming. If you are new then you readily share those ideas. Wow, you ARE impressing your new bosses AND you are adding work to yourself. “Great idea Steve, why don’t you take the lead on that?” As your beaming from the praise…..you may also have set yourself up for lower performance in the future.
These new job tasks are adding complexity to your role and/or your business. Complexity can be unconsciously draining and the next thing you know……you are feeling exhausted and bored…..and then overwhelmed from trying to keep up with all of the new complexity that you had a hand in creating.
Does this sound familiar? Now that you recognize that you may be partly to blame for not working at your highest performance, what can you do?
SIMPLIFY!
I recently heard that the I-Phone is 70% of Apple’s revenue. Think about that. They are focusing 70% of their best resources, time, and energy on 1 product. Can you as a first step look at your job or business and find your 70%? Does 1 thing come to mind that you can create your highest performance and results around?
This doesn’t mean that you don’t share new ideas. It does mean that you honor your talent enough to not participant in complexity more than performance.
Think of it this way……just because you have Grandma’s famous German Chocolate Cake recipe doesn’t mean you run to 3 different stores for ingredients and stay up until 2 am to make it for your favorite co-worker’s birthday the next day when you can call the corner bakery and have it delivered to the office for around the same price.
Simplifying is an ongoing task…..let’s hear from you…..how do you simplify? Sharing your stories help others. We all can use a little more simplifying in our lives.
