“Don’t be an effing hero, Marcus” an enlightened boss once said to me.
“No-one will thank you for working crazy hours. Do it if it makes you feel good, but you’ll be no use to me if you burn out.”
It should have been a great wake-up call, but I found the advice impossible to follow. I didn’t want to be working that hard so why was I?
👉 I was ambitious and wanted to be the very best I could be
👉 there was limitless work to do and I cared deeply about the organisation’s success
👉 I saw others working just as hard and didn’t notice anyone succeeding by easing their foot off the gas
The bottom line is I convinced myself I didn’t have a choice.
But with a little distance I can see I did have a choice. Working hard does work, up to a point. But beyond that it’s counterproductive. It drains our batteries and our health, and breeds negativity, resentment or worse, when to be at our creative, positive, productive best we need to be fully energised. It can be the hardest thing to see, but to be better at work we need to switch off and ‘fill up’ on other stuff, whether it’s our family, friends or other things that matter to us. (And by the way, that makes for a much more sustainable and fulfilling way of living too 😀)
So if you’re over-working and your batteries are drained, my encouragement to you:
✅ know that hitting that off switch earlier will help you to truly be the best you can be at work
✅ accept you’ll never finish your “to-do” list so stop trying. Prioritise and do a great job on what matters most 🎯
✅ if there aren’t good role models where you work, break the mould and show others how it should be done. Be the effing hero your colleagues and family need you to be 💪
Ps. that was me hitting the off switch (earlyish) yesterday evening