Let them know…
Someone, somewhere told me once – if I am unable to make a deadline, be it at work, on a committee or anything, to let the person know who is organizing it well in advance that I won’t be making said deadline.
At my last “real” job – the one that drove me out of the corporate world and into entrepreneurship, I ran into this very situation. My boss at the time, had given the team an extra project with a week’s deadline. This was on top of our normal workload. Now mind you, this was over twelve years ago, but I want to say that I remember the workload being light at the time, hence, the new project.
I wasn’t going to make the deadline….
My personal workload was not as light as the others on the team, however, and a couple of days into the special project I could see the writing on the wall and I knew I wasn’t going to make the deadline. I approached my boss and let her know my predicament.
Her reply?
“Well Meg is going to make her deadline.”
Meg was the team lead and she could do no wrong in our boss’s eyes.
I remember having a couple of thoughts as I walked away:
“Well, good for Meg!”
“Sure, Meg’s clients aren’t demanding anything from her at the moment.”
I could have come up with a ton of excuses or reasons why I wasn’t going to meet the deadline and why Meg was.
But the reality of the situation was – my boss’s comments about Meg did little to make me want to work harder. I honestly felt I was doing the best that I could do by meeting my client’s needs. I wasn’t slacking off, I was already working hard. In my situation, the fact of the matter was – the deadline was simply unachievable.
What’s your excuse?
Jump forward to last week. Did you see this photo drifting around the internet and the news?
I’ve read some of the follow-up interviews with this mom and she claims “if I can do it, so can you.”
That’s true – but my question to her is “who is she to set herself as the benchmark.”
I’m no more motivated by her photo to go workout than I was without seeing it.
To me – it is just mean-spirited.
I know some people are motivated by others; striving to be like them or even surpass them. I’m not one of those people.
I’m just trying to be happy; happy in my own skin. The Jones are my neighbors, not my competition.
Happy Monday Everyone!
~Amy
PS – what do you think? Are you motivated by ads like this?
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