Most days, I wake up ready to work. I want to work. I love my work. That’s the easy part of this equation. How about when for two weeks straight you wake up feeling like poo? It happens. For some of us, it’s just a matter of fighting a cold or flu bug for a couple weeks. For some of my friends, it’s battling with chronic illness. For my Dad, it was five-plus years battling cancer. What are you going to do on those days?
Good work, that’s what
Why are you sitting still? Shouldn’t it take a fever or doctor’s orders to stop you in your tracks? For most of the last two weeks, I had about enough motivation to move from bed to the couch and channel surf – at least that’s what I wanted to do. That’s not what I did. I kept writing. I kept working. Did I throttle back a little bit? Yes, on a few days I did.
A funny thing happened – I got better. Then, when I got better because I had powered through some work I really didn’t feel like doing, I was not two weeks behind. Okay, enough of my story. We’ve all experienced this to one degree or another. For me at least, there was a powerful lesson in this most recent experience.
What we do when we don’t want to matters – a lot
Time is precious. Damn precious. Perhaps, when you are 25 this is harder to see than when you are 45, but it’s true nonetheless. Every minute of your life, what you are doing is bringing you close to or further from your goals. Are you really willing to let sniffles or a stomachache keep you from success; even if it’s only for a few hours or a day?
When you are less motivated do the work you don’t like doing. Over the last two weeks, I got more than a few bank statements balanced and paperwork tasks completed. The upside of this approach is that, when feeling better, you’ve left the fun tasks to be done with full mental and motivation force in place. Keep plugging away at tasks that have to be completed anyway. Save your energy each day for the important customer contacts that can’t be delayed.
Know the expression “Ninety percent of success is showing up.” I agree it’s true as long as you are working and not just taking up space. Turning your computer on and sending a few tweets is not the same as turning your computer on and writing a blog post or preparing a proposal for a customer. The later is showing up and working, while the former is simply showing up.
Please don’t just show up. Instead know that the work you do when you don’t want to matters – a lot.
Thanks Jim for yet another awesome read! It is perfect timing considering my current “flu” situation. Every day I get up and no matter how “poo” I feel, I get totally dressed and work on what I can handle at that moment. Paperwork, event scheduling, writing and so on – all getting done as I push through the flu.
This experience has given me a greater strength than I had before the flu hit me. My resolve is greater and, during the down time, my mental focus is clear on the path ahead.
Thanks again! Hope you are feeling better!
Shannon,
You get it – it’s about valuing time more than any other single asset in your life or business.
Jim
Such a great, timely, article Jim. The discipline of some people can be extremely frustrating for someone, like myself, that struggles on a daily basis with more than the flu. It takes a certain kind of person to have the ambition to work through sickness, pain and discomfort and consistently turn in quality work while being approachable, helpful and kind. I’d like to believe I’m one of those folks.
Sometimes I just want to grab those people by the shoulders, shake them, and ask “seriously, you are throwing in the towel for *this*?”. I think it’s a good way for individuals to assess their happiness in their job or career. If they are that prone to call in for no reason maybe it’s time to change employers or even change careers.
I could write a lot about this topic. Maybe I need to write a full blog post in response to this 😉
Joshua,
You and my friend Sara Santiago were front and center in my mind when I wrote this. I thought to myself, if those two kids can power through what they need to each day I can surly drag my a$$ out of bed and be productive. And you are correct the “while being approachable, helpful and kind” is very important. To be honest, I need to work on that part when I’m ill. I turn into a grouch.
Jim
Ha, nice way of putting that. I appreciate the kind thought as well.
Being sick is all relative. Each person can manage different levels of discomfort. When it comes to being approachable, helpful and kind it really depends on how sick are you in that relative mindset and is it reasonable to be disconnected?
Interesting perspective. But I have to say, I don’t agree with working through illness. If you don’t rest, you won’t get any better! Whatever happened to listening to your body? It’s trying to tell you it needs to recover… don’t fight it. This post seems absurd to me, but I hope you feel better soon so you can be back at 100%! 🙂
Annie – I think we are actually in agreement. I did say if running a fever or under Doctors orders then by all means rest. I also mentioned that I throttled back on a few of the days. I guess at the end of the day my friend Joshua did a better job of explaining that it’s about understanding one’s discomfort threshold. I don’t know maybe it’s like when you guys run through pain that would stop me cold.
Anyway, I am actually back to 100% (I wrote to post over the past weekend). Thanks for weighing in – I’ve enjoyed thinking about this post and extending the conversation.
Jimmy
I think plugging through applies if you work from home, are a freelance artist or writer or something, but showing up to work all sick with the flu just gets other people sick.
At some point thought you do just have to plug through… interesting read.
Oh, I agree taking illness to a populated workplace is not such a great idea.