Dials and Switches

Dials and switches

Some people love the day of love, others hate it vehemently, while most of us are probably caught off guard thinking “Is it V-day already!?” I fall into the last category – the first 7-odd weeks of this year have just flown by!

The reason I mention Valentine’s Day (and we’ve spoken about it before on our blog) is that it seems to be the line in the sand that most New Year’s resolutions never reach. Some years ago I trained at a Virgin Active gym in Pretoria. After a couple of months you get used to the faces that train around the same time I did – let’s call them the locals. Every January there would be an influx of new faces, motivated to make “this year my best year yet”. And by Valentine’s Day they would be gone, only to return next January for another go at it.

Making healthy habits stick is tough for all of us, for a variety of reasons. One of them is that we tend to throw in the towel when things don’t go perfectly according to plan. We set out with a very specific plan in mind (like training 6 times a week) but then we get sick or miss a day and think “Agh to hell with it, this will NEVER work.” Then we end up training zero days, instead of 2 out of 6 (which is obviously better than 0).

I found this illustration on Instagram which explains it nicely:

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We get caught in the trap of thinking “If it can’t be perfect, it’s not worth doing”. Which brings me to the idea of dials and switches. Instead of thinking of your effort as a switch: on or off, hit or miss, perfect or terrible, rather consider seeing it as a dial: 9 out of 10, 3 out of 10 etc, as the picture shows. I don’t care who you are, none of us are at a perfect ten every day. Some days we have to dial things back a bit, only to turn up the volume again tomorrow or next week. This not only applies to our health but to relationships, work, our finances, studies, hobbies etc.

The world’s greatest golfer Jack Niklaus has his way of looking at this. When asked to explain his longevity and ability to compete at the highest level for multiple decades, he said that he learnt to “play poorly well”. He would start every tournament aiming to win, but often things would not go his way from early on. He could tell that he was not at his best. Instead of writing the week off as a waste in the first round, he would stick with it, doing his utmost to focus on making the next shot a good one. This resulted in him not just winning a huge amount of tournaments, but achieving top-10 finishes (which are also very valuable in accumulating ranking points and prize money) when most other golfers would not have made it past the second round.

This is a shift in mindset that all of us can benefit from. Instead of shaming yourself into the failure of hit-or-miss, adjust the dial. Turn it down when needed and crank it up when the situation allows. Do your best to not fall into the trap of making things worse than they need to be out of spite or frustration. Coming back from a 4/10 is much easier than starting from scratch every time.

In short, try to stick to your own lane, and avoid judgement and comparison. This may help us show more compassion to ourselves but also to the people around us.

If you are having a difficult time setting goals and sticking to them; or you need some help with seeing your next step or measuring progress, get in touch. You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.