The advice I give myself when I’ve overcommitted
Overcommitment. We’ve all been there, right?
We agreed to do something, and when we originally made that agreement, it felt really doable.
And then life hit.
Kids got sick.
Work assignments piled up.
We’ve been putting out fires.
Or maybe we just put off thinking about it until the deadline was finally close enough to see it.
No matter what happened, that deadline is coming and it’s kind of freaking us out.
So, what do we do?
Get out of the commitment? That’s one option, but I personally hate that option. I hate letting people down. I want to be known as reliable.
So instead, I push extra hard, overextend for a while, get the dang thing done, and then have to recover for several days.
Ugh.
Let’s be honest. That isn’t a great option either.
So, is there an alternative?
Here’s the advice I give myself in these scenarios:
If I can’t move the deadline, don’t want to let others down, and am not willing to break the promise I’ve made to myself to stop treating overextension as a badge of honor, I ask myself:
“What can I Delete, Delegate, or Downplay?”
Delete
When I originally made the commitment, I probably wasn’t thinking about the 16 other plates I’d be spinning at this point in time.
Now that I’m staring down the deadline, it’s okay to reevaluate whether all those plates need to keep spinning.
Are there a couple I can put down for a minute, just until I reach the deadline?
Maybe something that seemed urgent last week isn’t actually urgent anymore. Maybe something can wait. Maybe I can simply give myself permission to do less somewhere else for a little while.
Delegate
Just because I committed to getting this thing done doesn’t mean I need to be the only one who gets it done.
Keeping all the responsibility on myself is bad strategy.
So, if there is someone else who has the time, talents, or resources available, I’ll try to recruit them to the cause.
Not as an excuse, but as an opportunity to expand my circle of influence.
I call this “building out your bench,” and I’ll cover that more in a later newsletter.
Downplay
As a high achiever, my standard for getting things done is usually pretty dang high.
I don’t like dropping my standards.
The problem is, my standard isn’t always the same as whoever gave me the assignment. Often, my own plans are far grander than what they actually want or expect.
And overdelivering at this point is often overlooked.
I’ve found that ignored effort has a funny way of turning into resentment.
So, I take a moment to get clear on the other party’s actual expectations and then see if I need to downplay any of mine as well.
Maybe “great” is enough when I was planning to make it “amazing.”
Maybe the 10-step version I had in my head can become a 5-step version that still accomplishes the goal.
That’s not lowering the bar.
It’s making sure the bar I’m trying to clear is actually the one that matters.
Just bulldozing our way to the end of a deadline is an unsustainable way to perform.
Even-Achieving® says there is more than one way to achieve things.
When we expand our range of options, we can keep our commitments, maintain the standards that actually matter, and hit the deadline without drowning ourselves in the process.
And sometimes, that’s what sustainable high performance looks like.
Thanks for reading with me today!
If you’re looking for more ways to Even-Achieve, I’m ramping up my social media presence on Instagram. I’d love to have you join me at @evenachieving
