#4 What is your next move?

Happy Cinco De Mayo.

I took a few days off and I just started to notice something.

Whenever you reach a goal, it gets more and more difficult to innovate.  Things start to get tougher.  It gets more difficult because now you have more to lose.  You set a standard…you hit it…and now have to raise the bar.

When the bar is raised, the fear of failure is raised as well.  That’s when complacency settles in.  We take a breath.  Our sense of urgency to complete the next project goes down.  Maybe we don’t work as hard as we did before because we give ourselves a little “mental break” or a physical break.  We feel that because we have accomplished something, we don’t have to push as hard.  We dodge accountability for our actions.

Then we lose a day or two.

Maybe it only happens to me, but whenever I take a day or two off, I start to feel guilty.  I feel that I have missed opportunities to grow.  A long time ago, I set a standard for myself, and when time goes by and progress is not made, I understand that the only person I hurt is myself.

What standards have you set for yourself?  How close are you to reaching that standard?

What is your next move from here?