Humility to Keep Going

To have a project derailed from the plan is human, and probably happens in many situations both personal and professional. It happens to be the best of us. This is not what distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful.

What really sets apart those who go on to achieve their goals is the humility to recognize that things may not be going as intended, and then pivoting fast enough to get the train back on track.

In the personal setting I experience this often. Sometimes we end up breaking the chain of consistency in exercise, say because of an outstation trip or because of a late night at work. The trick is to ensure the chain break is minimized to 1 day and we restart the next day. Often that 1 day break ends up becoming 1 month, with inertia setting in.

In the professional setting too, it isn't that much different. Sometimes we are on a roll as a team or an organization, and have formed good habits. Often these good habits end up breaking for unplanned reasons. We need to help our teams snap out of the unplanned diversions, and focus back on the process. This could be about consistently sharing communication with the teams, about recognizing those who are consistently doing a great job, or staying connected to our clients.