What makes you stop?

I often ask myself – Why is it that we are always afraid of committing beyond certain limits? Why don’t we announce that we will push ourselves beyond our limits? What is it, that despite our all honest intentions, we fail to believe in ourselves? What makes us Stop?

Jitesh was disappointed. The results of the “Budding Leader Program” interview was just out and he couldn’t believe that his name did not feature over there. And Rohan, his colleague had just got selected, despite similar target achievements that both of them had during the year. He tried to reflect back upon what happened last year, and what came to his mind was a board room scene before the year begun.

Jitesh had a serious debate with Mr. Sharma, their Boss, proving him how achieving a 20% growth would be impossible and therefore, would demotivate his entire team. He had a lot of points on his side – ranging from high base of last year, competition cropping up in the meanwhile, some key members of the team resigning and many more. Finally, Mr. Sharma gave up and reduced his targets to 10% growth only. Jitesh breathed a sigh of relief! Rohan, on the other hand, accepted 20% growth with much zeal and Jitesh thought that was only to butter the seniors.

After Q1, Jitesh got 110% achievement, while Rohan closed at 98% and was being questioned by seniors. Jitesh, was thanking God. He finally got a little more confident that it’s not as difficult to achieve targets. He looked at Rohan’s disappointed face and felt so much better about having negotiated his targets well enough. He was wondering what face would he have shown to his Boss if he didn’t achieve.

A lot of times, it’s not complacency or “ulterior motives” that make us stop from taking higher targets. The biggest thing, which makes us “stop”, is the “fear of failure”. We have grown in a society where we are driven to be successful – career, social lives, family and others – and where failures are unacceptable! When we fail, we are threatened to be punished. The world judges us by how much we have over delivered rather than delivering at par. We all believe in “exceeding expectations” rather than “meeting” it. A lot of us would believe that the story ends here. But there’s something more to it, let’s take a look.

For Jitesh, it was easy to achieve his targets. He would do little and his targets would get achieved. He and his entire team were now over confident of delivering numbers. He remembered how for Rohan, every single week used to be a struggle. Rohan kept on pushing for the sales by various means. Motivating his staff, setting the processes right to make people’s tasks simpler, focusing on SOPs, Rohan and his team were always on their toes. And when, for a few weeks, Rohan saw that the targets were getting missed, he encouraged his team to have innovative ideas for sales. Now, his entire team was only thinking “how to sell more”. All this, Jitesh thought was so much of efforts that he managed to save himself from and still face his seniors.

This is what most of us fail to look at. What new did we learn? Did we try hard enough? Are we happy with ourselves? And most importantly, what can go worse if we fail to deliver what we have committed?  In quest to show the world how great we are, we forget to show it to ourselves, and this is what makes us “stop”! We always choose to become “an example to others” rather than “ a better  individual”, not realizing that only and only the latter leads to the former.

At the end of the year, both of them closed at 100% ABP Achievement, though Rohan’s growth was 20% and his was 10% .Jitesh was satisfied with his performance. After all, not everyone manages to achieve 100%. But then, he remembered meeting Rohan outside the Interview room, how Rohan was beaming with confidence and in front of which, his own satisfaction with his performance was getting overshadowed.  

One thing we all have to accept, is that all of us work towards a target. If the target gets achieved easily, we are bound to get complacent and not try harder when our targets get achieved. The easiest way out is to take lower targets. But is target achievement the only parameter that you would judge your professional life upon?  

Atychiphobia – The irrational fear of failure, also known as performance anxiety. Atychiphobes generally gather a defeatist attitude out of fear of failing, making them avoid trying to achieve anything due to potentially failing at it. This strategy is known as avoidance behavior. Atychiphobes may also suffer from an inordinate sense of perfectionism, and may only try something that is guaranteed perfect. We all, do suffer from Atychiphobia in various degrees, and at various stages of our life. If you turn some of the pages of history, you will find that most of the leaders only became successful, after tasting multiple bites of failure. Do you suffer from Atychiphobia? Do you realize how it is hindering your own growth? Are you working towards coming over it?

Hope this note gives all of you a different perspective to look at your limits.

You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter