Bare_Minimum

If you carefully examine the common traits behind any transformational leader, one constant emerges.  Effort.  Many leaders are blessed with natural talents such as vision, charisma, and intelligence. But that talent alone is not enough to change the world.  Walt Disney was an enormously gifted artist and a creative visionary. But his effort delivering newspapers as a side job led to his first big break drawing cartoons.  The rest is history.  Vince Lombardi had more charisma and motivational acumen than any coach of his time.  But without his decision to take on extra coaching work beyond his daily teaching responsibilities, he may never have become a legend.  Sam Walton had an innate understanding of the customer’s needs and an incredible savviness for business.  But he likely would have never founded Wal-Mart if he didn’t take a huge financial risk in opening a second five-and-dime store.  All these men came to the table with natural talent and potential that could propel them to fame.  Yet none of them would have succeeded without taking on extra work and pushing themselves above and beyond their own limits.

But most of us are not born with these incredible natural gifts and talent.  We need to work even harder and balance even more in our lives if we want to walk down a path of success and happiness.   We simply cannot afford to do the bare minimum.  Yet, in our work lives, that is the path we sometimes choose to travel.  Do we strive for innovative ways to move our business forward or do we settle for just staying afloat?  Do we examine alternative methods that will help us more effectively connect with our students or do we memorize the same lessons over and over?  Do we run out of bounds near the goal line or do we dive into the end zone?  Do we study 20 minutes for a test and hope to get a “C”,  or do we hunker down, make sacrifices, and strive for that “A”?  Do we grind to blow away our sales numbers or do we eke out 100 percent and play golf for the rest of the year?  Hmmm.  Don’t answer that last one!  But seriously, when has exhibiting the bare minimum translated to success?  Unfortunately, this mentality can impact our personal lives as well.  It becomes okay to come home and play video games rather than read a book or passionately pursue your hobby.  It becomes okay to loaf in practice or slack off in exercise.  It becomes okay to leave our dishes on the counter and assume someone else will clean them up.  Does that sound like a fulfilling life?  Doing the bare minimum is a recipe for mediocrity.

And when adversity strikes, it is even more important to go above the bare minimum.  It takes extra effort and passion to bounce back from a setback.  Unfortunately, most people go in the opposite direction.  When things are going poorly, they give up entirely.  The bare minimum would be an upgrade!  Those tough moments are the times when we have to work even harder to get back on our feet.  Resilience is not easy but if you exhibit the energy, enthusiasm and effort during the down moments, it will carry over to all aspects of your life.  I’m not suggesting we all need to go for that brass ring in our work lives and then constantly go into turbo mode in our personal lives.  Not all of us have the same drive.  Not all of us have the same energy levels.  Sometimes, we need a break.  But we can still exhibit effort in everything we do.  We can still push ourselves beyond our perceived limits.  We can still passionately pursue a goal and fight to achieve success!  We can all demonstrate resilience with just a little bit more effort.

Go the extra mile. Than go a thousand more.  No one ever conquered life doing the bare minimum. —Dan Waldschmidt.

Here is a little secret.  You can actually live your entire life giving the bare minimum.  There are no laws requiring extra effort. No one is going to force you to be passionate.  But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.   While we can survive doing the bare minimum, we cannot improve our lives.  We cannot master new skills. We cannot build meaningful relationships.  We cannot become the best version of ourselves.  Effort may not lead to financial success, but it will certainly lead to personal satisfaction.  More importantly, it will ultimately lead to happiness.  We have so much to give in both our work and personal lives.  It just requires going above and beyond the bare minimum in all aspects of our lives.  Who is in?

Until next week, keep smiling!