Chasing vs chased
If there's one thing I've noticed about virtually all of my CiviCRM coaching clients, it's this:
They usually have a lot on their plate.
Sometimes it’s almost more than they can keep up with.
Variations in the calendar, in staff and volunteer availability, and in funding can combine to create some challenging situations, when the list of To-Dos seems to grow faster than you can knock them out.
Such situations might be unavoidable, but I've found that my clients typically have two subtly different ways of dealing with it:
Just scrambling to get out from under and get back to “normal.”
Appreciating the value of each completed task, despite the large volume of work.
As you might guess, that second viewpoint is more common among my more successful clients.
Here's the thing:
It can be pretty easy to feel overwhelmed.
You can knock out three tasks, only to find that five more have been added in their place.
It can feel like it's just never going to end.
And that feeling is not especially motivating.
But what can be very motivating is to appreciate that you just quickly knocked out three valuable operations, no matter how much more it seems there is to do.
Those three tasks, now completed, have real value of their own, and that’s worth remembering.
It's a difference between feeling chased and chasing.
The difference between feeling that your work demands a lot of you and remembering that you demand a lot of your work.
After all, we're not just trying to “get to Done.”
We're trying to get valuable things done for the people we care about.
And even in the most hectic of times, the things you do get done are wins.
Prioritize and execute. When things get hectic, that's the only way to get ahead.
And not just to get ahead of your to-do list, but to get ahead of the real-world problems you’re working to solve for the people you care about.
All the best,
A.