The Challenge in Meeting Your Own High Expectations

Its 5:15 pm on Monday and I just sat down to start working on my task list, yet I’ve been at work since 9:00 am.  What’s wrong with this picture?

This is how my week started.  I arrived at work Monday morning not having had the best night’s sleep to face an endless task list that had piled up the previous week. Monday is our prime meeting day: “Round the Horn” meeting, ops meeting, planning meetings, customer calls – basically the day is jam-packed.

The day flew by and before I knew it, it was after 5:00 pm. I had been in meetings all day and hadn’t even had a chance to work down any of my tasks. I was stressing! 

You could see it on my face, I was struggling to write basic proposals/emails and I was just about to lose my cool. After a few more hours I had accomplished what I could, and emailed the rest to myself in hopes of working on it once I got home.

So the morning rolls around and the alarm clock goes off at 6:00 am with a blaring reminder that I have a networking meeting starting at 7:30. I arrived at the meeting, shook some hands, gave my pitch, and sat there listening to the discussion about “what is your unique selling proposition.”  I arrived thinking, “Great, another networking meeting. I’m tired, I’d rather be asleep, and I have way too much on my task list to be here.”

After a while I started to notice a shift in my attitude. I started thinking I could either sit here and sulk, or I could pull it together and be engaged. I sat up on the edge of my chair and started listening and contributing to the discussion. Before I knew it, I had jotted down five ideas for prospecting for new business! 

The meeting ended and I made my way into the office with just a bit more spring in my step than I had just a few hours earlier. The point is that ambitious people set pretty high goals for themselves, and sometimes you just get caught up in the weeds. You can’t beat yourself up over one rough day.

Rather than getting frustrated and letting the circumstances that impacted my ability to achieve my own high expectations eat up my momentum, I recognized the opportunity in front of me. I set my frustrations aside, focused on adding value to the situation at hand, and before I knew it, had gained several new ideas that I could immediately put into action to drive business.

That simple realization had a profound effect not only on my attitude but in my observable behavior. Later that day, Charles and I were working on a project and he asked, “Did something happen to you? You have a good energy about you today; something changed.”  My momentum was back!

Anyone else have a story they would like to share about battling with your own high expectations? Leave a comment below!

Editor's note: This is a guest blog from Criteria for Success, Charles' Bernard's company. To contact Wyeth or Criteria for Success, please see below.