With the recent acquisition of a large piece of business, a friend of mine who is outside of the business said: “Man, that’s really great news that you won that account – I bet you can sit back and cruise for a little while, right?” Obviously, I said “friend of mine” not “close friend of mine” because that is hardly how I operate and the exact opposite of what I find myself doing right now.
Times like these are exciting, scary, fun, filled with doubt and all the while filled with moments of absolute panic wondering how am I going to get everything done that I have to do? But somehow, it always works itself out for those who work their ass off. I have flown more places and traveled more miles this month than any that I can recall. While traveling 15 days in a month is something I have done many times before, this time it is more intense because most every place that I am going is a new city, new client and I’m usually trying to fit meetings in two or three different cities into a day. For me, this is a whole new pace and while it brings you to the point of exhaustion sometimes, I am truly enjoying it and learning that you can push yourself even harder than you thought you could in the past.
So, what’s the trick? How can you pull this off and not be going absolutely crazy trying to work 18 hours a day, six days a week and feeling like you will have a panic attack if you aren’t checking your phone every few minutes? Easy… “Keep Calm – AND WORK YOUR ASS OFF!”
Keeping calm is the common denominator to my otherwise insane world. Not to mention the challenge of trying to juggle being home for my kids as much as I can, and working to help grow the company as much as I can. I find it all is a whole lot easier when just staying calm. Some people who know me and read this might say: “Well he is anything but calm.” But that simply isn’t the case. Sure, I will get fired up over what I think are senseless issues, and yes, I move around and act with a sense of energy and urgency – but all in all, I have a very calm sense over me and my thinking most of the time.
I have grown to have tremendous respect for seeing insurmountable tasks, and somehow managing to accomplish them. This started out very early in my career, and it seems that every time a new period like this hits, I can somehow navigate my way through it better. It’s not that I am addicted to trying to find challenges and obstacles that will drive everyone around me to insanity! I would argue that these challenges and obstacles seem to have a way of finding me. Maybe what I enjoy about navigating through these times is seeing how the people around me are able to grow and thrive during these times. I look at those who can easily manage the stress and feelings of different emotions almost every minute of the day all while having a smile on their face and I see a lot of myself in these individuals.
Having a mindset and mental toughness for mountains of work is not for everybody, but I sure love the hell out of it and continue to try and be better with each obstacle as it comes my way.