Transform Excellent to Epic

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There’s a catchphrase going around: Slow down to speed up. That sounds like good advice—for someone else!

When do you want your food served? Now. When do you want your text returned? Now. And when do you want to get paid? Now. But there’s a downside to the “now, now, now” pushy mentality—mistakes can happen.

Doing Your Best Work Requires Easing the Pace

I recently learned a painful lesson about pushing at a community service project. Everyone in the room nodded in agreement as the food bank Project Leader described how we’d work in an orderly assembly line. And everyone laughed when she said, “Take the time you need. This isn’t a competition!”

But what goes on when you have 50 Type-A people in one room? A lot of pushing! We thought we were killing it, but cracks started to show as the Project Leader monitored our progress. She pulled a box with crooked tape out of the pile, giving us time to reinforce it before it burst open. Then she discovered that some of the food bags weren’t measured properly. A scoop here or there during production may not seem like a big deal, but it makes a huge difference to the family in need.

If we were going to do our best work, we had to ease the breakneck pace. However, there was an unexpected pleasure in slowing down: We worked with purpose and we enjoyed each other’s company. Our day wasn’t just excellent—after packing thousands of meals, it was epic!

Practice Taking the Pressure Off

Think back to a bad boss you’ve had—the person who pushes, pushes, pushes instead of giving you time for quality work. You know what? Nobody likes that person! So, don’t manage yourself that way.

Stay a good boss of you by taking the pressure off—that’s how you transform an excellent aspiration to epic. Here are three ways to practice:

• Make it fast by taking 30 seconds to declare, “I fine-tune my creativity with critical thinking. That’s how I transform ideas from excellent to epic!”
• Make it deep by taking 30 minutes to let your imagination run wild. Finish this sentence, “To make this even better, I could…”
• Make it real by putting at least two of your insights to the test.

5 Ways to Use Courage to Improve Your How

In the October series, Little by Little, we’ve discussed how achievements aren’t just about crossing the finish line—they’re built on plenty of courageous step-by-step right actions. So, if you’re struggling with a goal, take your focus off the What and course correct your How. Here’s a recap of the five ways to do that:

1. Let the Smoke Clear: It takes courage to let the smoke clear after an unexpected delay. However, you can inch ahead little by little and make delays work in your favor by strengthening vulnerabilities you didn’t see the first time around.
2. Write the Playbook: It takes courage to own up to the fact that you may be in over your head. Don’t wait for someone else to hand you the perfect answer. Strengthen your skill set little by little—over time, you’ll write your personal playbook.
3. Build on Your Core: It takes courage to turn down the voice of the critic—whether that’s your voice or someone else’s—saying things like “Why bother?” and “Too late.” Build on your core strengths little by little and while you’re at it, build a thick skin to the opposition.
4. Find the Perfect Mix: It takes courage to admit that Life has surprised you with a new normal. But you can experiment little by little until you find the perfect mix.
5. Transform Excellent to Epic: It takes courage to say, “This project will take longer than I thought.” However, if you fine-tune your execution little by little, you’ll transform an excellent aspiration to epic!

Your 2019 goals may still be evolving, but that’s ok. Act like the creative, wise CEO of your life—a Soul Boss—and remind yourself that small steps are progress.