One of my favorite things about Monday mornings is our team's weekly planning meeting. Before diving into the work of operations, marketing, and business development, we start each meeting by discussing our weekends and what we and our families did. It’s so enjoyable hearing all about dinner out with friends, date nights, home projects, hikes, kids' activities, and celebrating my colleagues living out the lives they dream of. It quenches the soul to be able to work with people who not only shoot for the moon professionally, but in daily life as individuals and with their families.
We share our goals with each other: How many books we want to read in a month, the progress of planting that garden, learning a song on the guitar, training for a jiu-jitsu tournament, burning the boats and taking that epic trip across the world. We know that we are all rooting for each other. We fist bump when we crush a goal, provide support when one of us adjusts a goal, and listen and encourage when we fail. We're still very much in pursuit for a group of people who have achieved a fair amount. We want to see what experiences we can have, test our capabilities, and discover what we can improve.
Once we’ve nailed the keynote address during a partners’ national sales meeting, completed the 6-month project that is now company doctrine, or hit submit on the latest blog we’ve authored, there’s a part of us that breathes a sigh of relief and accomplishment - YES! After achieving a goal, many of us (almost) immediately focus on what’s next. We ask ourselves, “Now what?” There’s always something we feel compelled to be working towards after finishing the last.
We think it's a good thing to keep striving for the next thing. There can be beauty and comfort in the process, but also a crash after the sugar rush.
We often fear we can’t top what we just completed and crushed. The next idea won’t be as insightful, next week’s blog won’t be as interesting, and sales won’t be as lucrative as last quarter’s. And that’s okay. We shouldn't be constrained by thinking the next thing has to be better/bigger than the last, or be fearful that it won’t. Because the payoff isn’t the end-state. It’s being in the flow of the process and the joy that comes with doing it with people we care about and who care about us.
So, how can we enjoy our latest win while keeping the anxiety of “the-next-one-has-to-be-bigger” low?
Reflect on your success - Be proud, ride the wave, and think about the work it took to get you to the finish line. Appreciate it, knowing that every endeavor won’t end this way. Some ventures will be wins, some may be draws, and others losses. Or you might experience one of our favorites, the ugly win! All of them are learning experiences that will help us to learn and grow.
Write it all down - From the mundane tasks to the crazy ideas, write them down. The most simple inventions created by mankind came from someone identifying a problem and then solving it. A “what if” develops into obtaining a new certification, and a “I want to” evolves into a regular habit. And a one-liner turns into a blog, which turns into a keynote, and later a book!
Stay uncomfortable - What counts is that you’re not complacent. We may have some dormant or slower seasons in life, but those are valuable too. These times can be great opportunities to focus on smaller, more unique targets. That 10-hour sales training refresher? Register for it. For the next month, read 20 pages of a book every day. If something makes you uncomfortable, do it more.
Enjoy the process—Let the flow and the people in it with you be the reward. While the big accomplishments feel good, what makes any win, big or small, truly meaningful are the people and relationships we have around us. Joy and fulfillment come from being engaged in things that stretch us and doing them with people who care about us.
Every “next” doesn’t have to be an epic summit. We just need to keep moving forward, making progress, learning along the way, and fist-bumping those on our team. That alone will inspire us to strive for more than we think we’re capable of doing, and actually do it.
