Moving from idle into action: Getting (re)started

You made it!  You achieved a hard-earned goal or achievement or you go to the end of an intense project, the end the year, the end of something important.  Now what? If it feels anti-climatic, you’re not alone. The feelings of ambiguity, fuzziness, lack of clarity about the next step or direction, boredom, or indifference are normal.  We’ve had clients end up here from time to time, some even regularly land here as a part of a regular cycle of activity.  One of our clients calls this the time for “coffee and contemplation”. 

Let’s start by looking at the process of how you got to the goal or end point.  Here we are talking about the big, transformative and monumental goals rather than operational or routine tasks.  In the beginning of the pursuit, you started with some lack of clarity and uncertainty of your true ability to get to the outcome you want.  With each step you took to get closer the vision and the finish line, you got greater clarity of the vision and increased confidence that you’d be able to make it happen. This clarity and confidence helped spur you on to push into higher gear and as the end came into focus, you sprinted to the finish line with an all-out effort. 

Now that you’ve made it, this new place of achievement feels uncomfortable because you’re used to the push and all-out efforts to get to the finish but the finish is now done.  The sense of urgency gone, for now. There’s likely something new you now want to achieve and you’re struggling to get started again.  Your engine seems to be stuck in idle.

We go to a fitness gym where there are three levels of intensity used as a metaphor to help each person assess their effort to make it to the end of the workout while also attaining the best results possible: Base, Push, and All-Out.  Sustainable productivity is also key to effective leadership and these metaphors work equally well at work.

Base: This is the level of personal effort used for endurance. It’s a pace that you can maintain for a long time, at least the length of the workout (or project, goal, initiative). This is the place of beginning, its your foundational and stable effort.

Push: This level of personal effort is your 80% maximum and this is where strength is built.  When you push into higher gear, you find new learning and build capabilities.  Operating at this higher level is energizing and sustainable over a moderate period of time.  After a Push effort, you tend to return to a stable base effort to regain energy to move into the next Push.

All-Out: At this level of personal effort, you bring all of your personal motivation and power.  This is your 100% effort that can’t be sustained long, but rather in sprints, to use when strategically important to get through to a difficult finish line.  After an All-Out, you’re spent and can’t go back to Base but instead need to walk or idle for a short while for a brief rest.

Take a minute to think about your pace of work right now. You might be walking and idling before restarting your Base pace and expect yourself to go straight to a Push or All Out.  You’re human, real human’s don’t work that way.  Good news, there are steps to move you from Idle, back to Base and once you find your Base, add some energy for Pushes to happen in the course of your pursuit.

Getting to Base is all about getting started.  Getting started means taking practical, forward moving steps.  Here are three steps to get back to your Base pace:

1.      Create some thought structure

• Brain dump to unclutter your collection of thoughts.  We love creating lists and whiteboarding to visualize

• Once you have a list you can start to identify themes of feelings, projects, timelines and more

2.     Generate energy and passion

• Visualize the next part of your journey

• Define what short term success looks like (from where you are and what you know right now)

• Imagine what success feels like and what it will be like when you get there

3.     Take baby steps

• Pick some easy wins or some interesting tasks to get started with that are super small and achievable. If it feels like you’re cheating with a baby step that’s too small, its probably the right size of step!

• Or, start with some “dopamine tasks”. These are tasks that are busy work like admin that needs to be done that are short, finite, and give you an easy check off the to-do list.

Moving from idle into action can feel overwhelming if you focus on asking yourself why you’re not more productive right now.  Instead, of self-judgement, acknowledge your need to idle after achieving any goal, milestone or end point and then move back to your base pace in small, practical steps.  Getting started or restarted is about clearing your mind, generating passion visualizing your path, and taking the smallest step forward.  Each baby step will not only get you closer to your goal, but will also ignite more drive, passion and energy to push you into the next gear.