I recently read an article written by one of Canada’s top athletic coaches while working out in my gym, and he made a very interesting point. (I wish I could credit him, but his name escapes me). His training philosophy, as with most of the coaches at that level, has as much to do with the psychological as the physical aspects.
His observations have led him to conclude that the differentiator between top athletes lies not in how well they perform during peak times, but how well they perform during their down times. He has come up with a concept called “your best average bad day”.Basically, if you look at your week or month, you will have good and bad days. Good days are when you are fit, limber, and working on peak performance. Bad days are when you are nursing an injury or are going through physiotherapy. The point he makes is that when you are having a bad day you can sit around and mope, or you can do flexibility training and strength training on the parts of the body that are not injured.
If on one of these bad days during the week you do one of these alternate exercise routines, your bad day average has just gone up, and as a result you have a better average bad day. As you continue to be active, your average bad days get better. Thus, you improve how well you function during down periods, and as a result are more prepared to win when you hit your peak.
This article I read made the point that this approach can work outside the athletic arena. So, with nothing to lose, I thought I’d focus on that, and the results have been interesting. I have forced myself to make that one extra call, send that extra e-mail, and when I really wished the world would just go away and leave me alone, read that extra article or two. What is interesting is that psychologically I feel better next day, since I feel I have had a better average bad day. In addition, that extra call, or whatever, leads to something occasionally so that the behaviour has inherent rewards.
After about three weeks of this, I find some of this is habit-forming, so the average bad days keep getting increasingly better. This is now manifesting itself in more potential opportunities, and they seem to be getting closer. At least I am at the stage where I am discussing action steps versus merely ideas. Also now I feel I am getting so busy that there is not time for sulking and negative self-talk.
This past week I moved the yard sticks on a couple of key opportunities. They both have medium to long term implications, so it means, with hard work and a bit of luck, I will be creating lots of work for myself in the future. And that felt really good. However, the short term cash flow situation is becoming a pain point, and I need to really follow up on some short term opportunities just to keep the candles burning. I admit that I have been slow to follow up on these for fear that they would interfere with some of the potential projects I have been nursing along, hoping that these projects would come to fruition earlier, rather than later. But alas, it was not to be so.
But as that New Business e-Course Lesson Two stated, you need to set yourself concrete goals. And so I set myself an ambitious revenue target that I can only achieve if I get active generating cash quickly. We’ll see how that all pans out by next Monday.
Peter Hadas has over 10 years consulting experience working for major national clients in the Biotech, Distribution, Retail, Financial Services, Professional Services, Energy & Utilities and Public Sector industries. Contact Peter Hadas Consulting at 905-470-7703.
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