Sandbagging and Sanity

“It is healthy for you to admit, “I am a limited resource.” You have only a certain amount of time, energy, giftedness, resources, and money. You’ve got only so much to give, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.” _H. Dale Burke, Less is More Leadership

Never be afraid to under-promise and over-deliver.

Be very careful and conservative where you set the bar of what people can expect from you.

For whatever you promise, that is only the starting point, and the “bar” is seldom, if ever, lowered. Instead, it is almost always raised.

For example, when was the last time your boss came by and said, “Wow, you are doing too good of a job! Why don’t you back off a bit?”

Or when was the last time you’ve heard of a parent giving their child a generous allowance or the latest cool must-have techy thing and the child didn’t come back around in a few days and ask for more?

Bottom line, expectations are seldom lower, they only go higher and higher until finally you can’t breath anymore.

Thus, be slow to make promises, projections, and commitments.

This doesn’t mean you are not planning on making a contribution and doing a great job, it just means you are reserving the right to make those contributions on your terms, at a sustainable and sane pace.

The ONE THING for today: The new year provides a great chance to recalibrate expectations. This year set them low and then pleasantly surprise everyone by exceeding them.

Golfers call that sandbagging, I call it a recipe for sanity.

Photo by Dan Congdon on Unsplash