Do Things That You Can Sustain….

Let me ask you a question…how many of you reading this now, thought to yourself before you opened it up “how long will this take me to read”? 

You probably didn’t sit there and think to yourself that you were just going to read through and see how far you got. 

The point I am getting at is that we are so conditioned to see life in time blocks. Constantly doing the math in our heads on what output we will get for our input.

We are so trained to operate with a time scarcity mindset that we often sabotage our own success by wanting change to happen quickly. 

Let’s attempt to look at this differently and talk about growth at a steady rate, rather than looking for the most rapid solution.

Imagine setting an upper bound limit for your growth. Sometimes by setting this limit on growth and intentionally avoiding growing too rapidly is strategic and highly effective. 

This approach to growth can be applied to nearly any goal; personally and professionally however we are used to seeing the opposite. Conditioned to focus on the lower bound. 

“I want to lose at least 5 kilos”

“I want to make at least 7 sales this week” 

“I want to write in my journal at least 4 nights this week” 

You see, we naturally draw attention to the minimum threshold. Placing importance on hitting that lower number with the implied assumption that anything more than that is possible and also a bonus. 

So let’s flip it and look at it from the perspective of focusing on the maximum threshold, the upper bound. 

“I want to lose at least 5 kilos but not more than 7” 

“I want to make at least 7 sales this week, but not more than 15”

“I want to write in my journal at least 4 nights this week, but not more than 6” 

By creating that “ceiling” for performance you are actually focusing on performing in the middle zone (the space between your “at least” and your “not more” than). This brings me to discuss the safety margin for growth.  

This is where growth sustainability really comes into play. In many areas of life, there is a magical zone for long-term, sustained growth. Meaning that there is a sweet spot between pushing hard enough to make progress but not too hard that the energy expense is not sustainable. 

The power of setting an upper limit is that it becomes easier for you to sustain your progress. By slowly limiting and un-limiting your threshold you can control how much you are growing in order to ensure your changes are lasting and the growth is sustainable, 

There is a very simple way to put this idea into practice: Let upper bound limits drive your behaviours in the beginning and then slowly increase your output.

By setting an incredibly easy upper limit, you make the process of getting started and sustaining your behaviour much simpler. Once you establish the routine of doing your behaviour over and over again, you can raise the limit as needed.

It is better to make small progress every day than to do as much as humanly possible in one day. Do things you can sustain.

Enjoy! 

x Spritz Mindset