Thriving in the storm: High performance in Social Sector overload scenarios

No matter how good your big picture planning and micro systems for your day/week are, sometimes it all goes to hell. Things that you had delegated at work fall back on you to complete. Many important work projects are due at the same time that the kids get sick and the babysitter moves to a new city. Storms happen. Emergencies happen. Events outside of our control overtake our best plans and systems. So what then? How do we deal with this inevitable convergence? How to we survive and potentially also benefit from this storm?

Everyone has their own set of unique challenges; everyone can come up with their own sob story. For me and my family this happens a few times a year, most frequently in the final quarter of October to December when organizations and donors finalize  humanitarian budgets and deliver big projects. This convergence also seems to correspond to the Atlantic Hurricane season. Here are a few mindsets, strategies and tactics to help weather the storm: 

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Mindsets + strategies
Visualize that the obstacle is the way - The ancient philosophy of Stoicism describes the  concept of the obstacle becoming the way. Studying methods for training your mind to see opportunity in adversity can help reframe your current storm into an opportunity for learning and excelling. For me, the current storm means a chance to test out new Social Sector Titan philosophies. 

Thinking impermanence - This is one of those moments of a storm. Like any thunderstorm, or even hurricane, it will be over at some point. Say to yourself “ok this is the hard part” rather than thinking of quitting or giving up. This is a temporary scenario that will change at some point. 

Preserve the asset (you)  - As the stress and congestive load increases, also ramp up care of yourself as your most important asset. Guard your sleep as the last thing you give up in this fight. A rested body and mind can best deal with this storm. Identify and carve out time for those things that plus up your energy and make them part of your day, rather than letting them fall away as the first casualty of more responsibility. You are in this for the long haul, and are seeking performance for your entire life and career. Increase the things that make you mentally and physically healthier since you are playing the long game. 

Understand the equation: Stress + Rest = Performance - Brad Stulberg defines this performance equation. Stress means any cognitive and physical load such as producing high quality social sector work while also being an active parent. Any stressful period requires a rest and recovery period. This can happen each day by taking periodic 5 minute walk breaks and then setting aside time for you and your family to recharge after an intense period. This means a restorative staycation rather than a marathon trek to famous tourist sites. Simply working hard (or harder) all the time will hurt your performance in the long term. 

When you stumble, don’t beat yourself up - As a practitioner of high performance living and working in the social sectors, I’m constantly making mistakes. For me that means trading off too much work travel vs. time with the family. Or taking on too many work projects so that overall quality output starts to slip. In her book The Gifts of Imperfection Brene Brown talks about techniques for wholehearted living.. One of them is to love yourself and get yourself gently back on track rather than verbally beating yourself up when you become distracted or feel overwhelmed in your storm. 

Tactics
On the tactical side, here are a few detailed tactics to try in your next storm season: 

Practice resetting and starting again - Every time you lose focus on the task at hand,  or make a mistake, you are only a few moments away from resetting and starting again. Life is a series of sequential distractions that force us to constantly reset. Otherwise, you risk suffering the consequences of not resetting.  Each day is a series of disruptions, followed by refocusing after these disruptions. Embrace that process and know that it will happen. A lot. Every day, all the time. Know it's coming and find your own way to reset. For me it means taking a few moments to think of why I’m doing this (project, activity with kids, etc.) and then setting a goal of 20 minutes to focus on that thing. Just 20 minutes. That’s it. Then take a quick break. Then start again just doing that next thing. As Anne Lamott states in her classic  advice to writers, just take it “bird by bird” Just do the next thing, forget the rest. 
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Making it work in real life
The storms in life happen to us all. Adversity is common to everyone in the Social Sectors and beyond. The mindsets, strategies and tactics above are my own l current recipe for survival. But the occasional inevitable storm gives me the chance to test new ways of thinking and acting when things are less than easy. This set of recipes is different for every person. We all need our own toolset  that works for us in our specific social sector life and work cocktail. What is your 'drink mix' or recipe? And how is it working this hurricane season? Write back or leave a comment on the blog and tell us about your approaches. What works for you and why? How did you figure that out? What doesn’t work? 

Happy Trails!