It’s something I’ve always suspected, but now I know it for certain.

This could be me next time around

This could be me next time around

I am idle.

In the last 4 weeks I have been working flat out, delivering training sessions back to back across 8 different topics.  I’ve had to adapt my own materials to deliver using WebEx, create new stuff and get my head around a client’s materials (which I always find hardest).  By the end of next week I will have delivered just under 30% of my annual target, in 5 weeks.

Oh yes, and in the middle of all of this I have moved house, been to two school reunion events and hosted my son James on his return home after 2 years from Australia.

I’m no mathematician, but something is telling me that I could be capable of at least doubling my output.  Oh my giddy aunt.

Is this work rate sustainable?  I’m not totally sure, to be honest.  It’s certainly got me thinking about increasing my expectations of myself.  My mental limits over what I am capable of need to be redefined, methinks.

What I do know is that I have thrived on it.  I am in what some people call a “flow state”:  it all seems to come without having to think too hard.  This morning I woke at  5 and got up, buzzing.  Got my head around a client’s coaching materials, did some hotel and logistics planning for next week, wrote this Blog, went down and scoffed a massive breakfast (my appetite has increased exponentially, unfortunately!), and nipped out to see the Edinburgh Christmas market before my first training session at noon.

I’m loving it, frankly.  Given a choice between this and having time on my hands (which I had plenty of earlier this year), give me manic every time.

Looking at this logically for one millisecond, there is a downside and some risk:

  • I probably don’t need to do it, and it can impact on others, most obviously on my home life
  • It might be less sustainable than I think and one day it could cause me to simply keel over
  • A wheel could fall off because I’m not so on top of it as I think I am
  • There are compromises to be made, and the less obviously important things don’t get done.

But for now, I am going to test myself and run with it.  Double my personal targets for next year.  I reckon I’ve got it in me, and it is doable.  You only live once, I won’t have this energy for ever, and if I fail, who’s to know, other than you and me?

One thing I have learnt after 15 years in the business training environment is that most people have far more potential than they realise.  Not least myself, it seems!

Question for you:  how much of your capacity and potential are you using currently?  How loud is that voice which is telling you that you’re overstretched?  What would happen if you aimed to get twice as much out of every day next year?

Answers on a postcard, please, or alternatively use the comment box below!