Working Harder Isn’t the Answer—What Is?

In her blog post, Working Harder Isn’t the Answer—What Is? Get Up Girl and trusted sales tutor, Alyse Hart, shares with us her suggestions for slowing down long enough to enjoy life.

Trying to work faster, harder, make more calls, work towards advanced degrees, respond to instant messages feels like a hamster wheel not the road to success. AND we’d do more if only we could be organized––is this you too? STOP the madness. Slow down. Speed kills. And it’s not just you––it’s everyone around you ––a collective craziness. I’ve watched women running about with bulging eyes, fidgeting hands and feet, and shorter tempers from Starbucks to the freeway lane next to me. They’re fumbling for their cell phones at the bottom of their bags and drat they can’t find them. Holy Mole––they’re not vibrant anymore. They’re wired not inspired and their life force is draining away. Still, they/ we/ me they try squeezing more in.

Zooming through activities temporarily takes the edge off anxiety. And it even disguises the gnawing feelings at bottom of your stomach. But it won’t take away that revved up feeling and you’ll never feel satisfied because there’s always more you can do. Our packed calendars and over-scheduled days once a status symbol and the mark of a success holds us hostage. After a certain point prolonged screen sucking keeps you up at night. Springing awake at 3AM unable to go back to sleep seems normal but old. It’s an adrenaline high and I don’t know about you but my busy brain can’t shut down more times than I’d like to admit. What would it be like if I didn’t meditate?

There’s hope and choice. Intentionally downshifting even for a moment and to ask "what’s enough?” will help raise awareness enough so you can stop for a second if you say you can’t ––how about turning down the volume on the terrorizing taskmaster in your head. It’s mucking with your rationality.

True success means having time for what you like and it’s not at the expense of things that mean a lot to you. So it really takes wisdom and reevaluating what success is for you at this time in your life and the period we’re in. Real sustainable success requires pacing, timing, introspection, authenticity, and vigilance. We can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor at warp speed you miss seeing the obvious sprouts that you could or should cultivate or even things ripe for the picking like opportunities, satisfying moments, or the grace of something falling into your lap at just the right moment. Go too fast and you miss it all.

BIG TIP. To shift gears you’ll need relentless discipline and instead of pushing more ask a new question: “how can I do this easier?” What is the simplest way to achieve what I need to do? It is a different spin and changes your life. To make life easier we must become skillful at creating alliances and collaborations for limited or predetermined periods of time, we need to add our wisdom and expertise to projects in spurts or predetermined doses. And you must choose to satisfy yourself. Yes, you must be at the center of your picture and not losing pieces of yourself is an art form. It requires not giving up on YOU or compromising away everything.

Give yourself a periodic mental hair wash and plant new seeds of thought. Practice setting end dates for what you want and learn when to call it quits (especially when there’s no yield or harvest) and say “game over.” This is critical to your sanity and there’s no reason to stay the course when it’s not a good road. The trick is discernment. Choose where you put your sweat and attention. Watch and reflect on things even though everyone else is running in circles.

THE challenge is to periodically cease your activities and allow time for observing situations and people objectively. There’s tremendous value in sitting still for at least 1-2 hours per week minimum weekly requirement for clarity. Keeping up isn’t the answer anymore. Practice opting out for just three minutes a day especially when things get hairy and you will be flexing one of the most important muscles for surviving our times and going the distance. It’ll help you to choose and order your steps well and move on things when the timing is just right or you follow the intuitive hit to make that phone call. More often than not you’ll find it yields great results.

by Alyse Hart Trusted sales tutor, storyteller, chief sales muse, change agent and whole human. A lifetime of experience selling and managing sellers. Founder and Owner of Sell it Like A Woman. A company devoted to economic empowerment for women.

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