Hey, hey there, Bold Leaders. Welcome back to another episode of the Bold Leadership Revolution podcast. I am your host, Tara Newman and today we are here to talk about a really important topic that comes up among Bold Leaders. And that is when to push, when to hustle, when to throw all your energy into driving for that goal. Because we know that there are times in our lives, careers, personal pursuits where we do need to throw some hustle into something and there is a season or a period of time where we are going head down and full force into that thing that it is that we’re trying to create, birth into the world, the desire that we want to come to fruition. And I have a confession, I’ve got big ambitions and I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and work. I can put my head down and grind it out with the best of them.
WHEN TO PUSH, WHEN TO HUSTLE, WHEN TO THROW ALL YOUR ENERGY INTO DRIVING FOR THAT GOAL.
I don’t need to be pushed. I’ve suffered through a lot in my life slogging along until I have reached the goal. I have a high threshold for pain and if you’re a high achieving woman like me, or man, this is most likely true for you too. I once reflected to a client of mine that she had a high threshold for pain and at first she thought it was a compliment until she realized how it was holding her back. The things we’ve been rewarded for in life aren’t necessarily the things that will bring us more of what we want. Our ambition when overused or used incorrectly becomes our cage.
I once asked this question on my Instagram, for my Instagram community, and so many of you felt like your ambition at times becomes your cage. When I started CrossFit, this became abundantly clear to me. Pushing and competing my way through every workout was leaving me exhausted and depleted. Just because I could push myself or trick myself into doing more, it didn’t mean I should and that it was good for me.
So many of you felt like your ambition at times becomes your cage.
Taking this approach would move me ahead one step, but then it would set me back because I would need to take more time to recover. It wasn’t aiding me in showing up consistently over long periods of time to actually make the gains I was looking for. Slowing down, practicing more, working on the micro movements, proper rest, all got me much further than hustling and grinding and pushing, but that doesn’t negate the times where we need to crank it up because maybe we are competing, or have a big project that we want to take on, or a specific goal that we really feel passionate about. So how do we know when to push?
What CrossFit has taught me is we push when we feel the pull, we don’t push to find the pull. The pull is energizing. It’s something that’s fun and exciting to us. It’s where we are in flow of creation. In the gym, this looks like a workout that I absolutely love where I feel inspired to compete. I’m personally not someone who likes to race or do competitions because they feel emotionally, mentally, and physically draining for me, so I create my own little competitions on a regular basis.
WHAT IF YOU WERE TO FILL YOUR CALENDAR WITH ONLY THINGS THAT EXCITE YOU, LEVERAGE YOUR STRENGTHS, FEEL FUN, AND THAT YOU FIND CREATIVELY ENRICHING?
Now let’s take this a step further. What if you were to fill your calendar with only things that excite you, leverage your strengths, feel fun, and that you find creatively enriching? You would feel that pull more often and create more opportunities to be your best without forcing, striving, or grinding. If you were to only push when you are feeling pulled, that would give you great insight into what brings you into flow. As I write this, I can feel a part of my conditioning wanting to resist the notion of only doing what pulls me and draws me in, only doing what turns me on and brings me tremendous levels of purpose and meaning in my work.
After all, aren’t we all supposed to be working very hard for what we want?
After all, aren’t we all supposed to be working very hard for what we want? Very hard we’ve been taught to work. For me, this is where we need to look at how we define high performance. Does being a high performer mean you have to work long and hard hours? Does it mean competing every day? Does it mean being better and faster and more efficient than everyone else or does it mean being your best? Does it mean pushing, grinding, striving, suffering for success? Or does it mean that you have a crystal clear definition of what success looks like for you and creating opportunities to pull you toward that success? What is the end result of your performance? Is it reaching your potential? Being on a journey of purpose and personal and professional growth?
As we close this episode, take some time this week to define high performance for you, not the way you see it being thrown about by gurus or celebrity coaches or entrepreneurs, but what does high performance mean to you? What does it look like for you to perform at your highest level? Then identify all the things that create that pull in your life. Head on over to the ‘Gram, I’m @TheTaraNewman, and share them with us. Let us learn more about what works for Bold Leaders. Let us learn more about how you’re defining high performance in your life and your business.
What does high performance mean to you?
I often share lessons learned on this podcast. It’s one of my favorite things to be able to do and I’m able to do this because of a strong commitment I have to radical self reflection. This commitment means that every week I’m looking at what’s happening in my business and in my life. The good, the bad, and yes, occasionally the ugly. Doing this work allows me to look at my months and even my years with real data, even for the less tangible parts of my business and life.
I call these weekly meetings, CEO debriefs, and I do them twice per month inside the BRAVE Society. We do them together. I have pulled together some of the highlights from CEO Debriefs that I’ve done inside of BRAVE and I’m sharing the best of the best with you. You might have heard a couple of these on the podcast, but I want you to take it a step further and feel what it’s like to do these with us inside of the BRAVE Society. So head on over to my show notes and sign up now to receive 10 CEO Debrief Questions you will want to ask yourself. Plus, listen in on some of the most popular shares that I’ve made. Listening to someone else’s debrief is a great way to find the language for what you’re experiencing, get a concrete example of radical self reflection, and learn how to grow your business because it’s oftentimes not what we think.
If you found this podcast valuable, help us develop more Bold Leaders in the world by sharing this episode with your friends, colleagues, and other Bold Leaders. Also, if you haven’t done so already, please leave a review. I consider reviews like podcasts currency and it’s the one thing you can do to help us out here at the Bold Leadership Revolution HQ. We would be so grateful for it. Special thanks goes to Stacey Harris from Uncommonly More, who is the producer and editor of this podcast. Go check them out for all your digital marketing and content creation needs. Be sure to tune into the next episode to help you embrace your ambition and leave the grind behind.
Important links to share:
Listen in on CEO Debriefs and Get 10 BOLD Questions for your own debrief.
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