The grinding culture is emerging these days in the East Europe. We tend to work more, it is our new normality to keep ourselves overworked. The problem is we are not getting any wealth out of it, comparing to the West.
Like golden rush 2 centuries ago - we are rushing towards getting rich. Like anything else it has it’s own risks and outcomes. In this article I want to discuss the big picture of it and what is waiting us when we’re on the lost side.
Sprint or marathon
On the first glance running competitions are simple - the fastest runner is getting the 1st place. I would call it a childish approach, because anyone, who has any experience with sports will shout out question: faster for how long? And this is where the story starts.
We must remember, that every run is a run at a specific distance. The huge difference between sports and busineses, despite many similarities, lies in the area of rules. You may think business has known rules, but in reality it does not. In real life business change of the rules, discovery of the details happens much more often in a battle.
In sports there is a set of rule, if someone makes a discovery or learns how to become unfairly good at something - rules are becoming more strict. In business... well, it depends. But one thing is clear - in business we never know the distance upfront.
In soccer, hockey and other team players - there is a limited time. In running sports - there is a specific, known in advance distance. In business - we should have a business plan. But who knows how realistic it is? How hard it will be to not follow the pity of sunk costs.
Here comes the first lesson - know the distance. If I’d have to go for 100 meters I wouldn’t have a second thought and just go as fast as possible. If I go for 10km - I should better be prepared and have a plan how to get to the end at least. Then - how to become on the top.
Preparing for the distance is important. When we fail to do so - we may end up with much lower energy, much less resources and finding ourselves in a much worst conditions. Giving too much too fast.
A backup and support
It is important to remember there are always teams behind the sports. Even when these are solo sports. There is someone to help, take care, giving feedback, preparing and waiting. Even solo runners are having a few people around them. Because it is not possible to achieve more without accumulating energy of multiple people.
Therefore, whenever we are preparing to another rush - we should have a recovery strategy and understand who’s our team. It might be yourself doing the right things to recover fast and it might be yourself who prepared everything needed. Like when you know you’re getting home late and hungry - you’d better prepare a meal in advance or know open hours for the nearest place where you can grab some food.
This preparation, “the team” standing behind, is a part of a big plan. Without it we might find ourselves in a places and situations that slows down the recovery or introduces additional risks.
When you’re squeezed - either someone helps you to get shelter, food and rest or that’s younger you who did that and prepared all that.
The motivation and the limits
Thousands of kilometers on the bicycle taught me one thing - mind is giving up much earlier than body does that. But it has a downside. When we teach how to ignore the mind - it becomes tempting to ignore the body. And body allows us to do so and go beyond what we see as limits. But then we hit a real limit.
And this is frustrating. Because we expected to go much further and do much more. Because we are unprepared and there is no team behind us. Because it was not clear what is the distance. And here we are at the point where we must confess the mistake and unpreparedness, accept our human limitations and take a rest.
If we fail to do so - we start to get into the deep hole. Burnout, depression, negativity. We can shovel that grave for years for ourselves, with negative coping and compensations that will be killing us. Until everything becomes non important. Even we. And that’s the breaking point.
It depends on luck and preparedness. But in general this is the point when we evaluate our life and start questioning own decisions. Sooner or later we understand - we acted like that’s a sprint while that’s an ultra-marathon. And while rushing towards the other goal we’ve forgotten the plan, we’ve lost the team and there is not a single drop of motivation to bring us further.
This is the moment where we start to cure, learn and grow.
Summary
I started a simple project of repairing a garage. The plan has changed and the amount of necessary effort grew multiple times. I was on the edge to fail the project, because there are many type of works that can’t be done in sub-zero temperatures. And last night was already too cold.
On the bright side - I made it just on time. Finishing the electrics, final cleaning and it’s done. But the effort it took was much higher than I expected. I had to compromise and combine many activities, including a full-time-like job.
I’m not regretting about it at all. I like the result, however it’s clear corners were cut (almost literally). Despite of the quite moderate effort I had today - I fell all that weight. I’m tired.
And there is one important difference - I am feeling totally fine to say so. I am not exhausting to the worst edge because I had to say “no” and I did that many times. I have a team and a recovery plan. At least I think so. And this is the reason for the title - we can push for a while, where we take our energy from the future self. When future me have to stay at home tonight to recover. We can’t have anything at the same time.
Anyways, that’s time to rest. And remember - sometimes rest is even more important than the preparations.