When the Best in you starts to bite, then….

Everyone wants to excel, in what one is engaged and be the Best. Sooner or later, one does move to the peak of his/her performance. Beyond then, what? This is when you find yourself at cross-roads. “You dream, dare, design, drive and get there with diligence” only to face “dilemma like never before?” It is a paradox, which humans have been facing all along.

Why?

In my last week’s post (click to refer), I have dwelt on a number of examples to demonstrate that how ordinary to extra-ordinary people have got into Worst, when they were at their Best; how “winning qualities” turned into “not merely losing” but “damaging” ones.

Let us understand this paradox.

While you are at your Best, why you invite the worst?

This applies to every individual for his/her one or more qualities, talent or competence. Status or size of his/her role does not matter!

  1. Your journey to the peak
    Your journey from normal performance to peak is like climbing a hill or mountain, depending upon degree of efforts required. When I am referring to the peak of performance, it can be by your own belief or it could be by the standards of your company, community, country or globe.
    When you reach the peak, it is like standing on the crest of a hill. 3 scenarios emerge at that stage:
    a) You are ecstatic. You look up and feel; now sky is the only limit. When you look down, you feel or find you are being looked at by the most.
    Above makes you over-confident, tempts you to break your limits and attempts to go further up, which is not feasible or sustainable and puts you into trouble.
    b) You feel out of the world and proud of the height you have attained. But, you are also very likely to feel nervous and at risk. You discover there is nothing more to go up to.
    This would shake your confidence and pull you down.
    c) You feel enchanted and endear the height you have attained. You want to remain there.
    This makes you complacent. Soon, you would discover, you are stagnating and losing the thrill, you enjoyed during your journey up. This would be start of your downfall.
    Above also proves – what goes up, ultimately comes down; but, what matters most “how and from what height one comes down!”
  2. Your being under people’s eyes and pressure
    Your accession to the best would be acclaimed by your seniors, peers, sub-ordinates, society and/or media. They would like you to remain there or push you to go beyond! It induces pressure and stress inside you. This is when you lose your strength and become gullible.
    There are several examples; but, I would cite very recent one:
    When one of the greatest Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar scored 99th century in year 2011, tremendous hype and hysteria was built by media and Indian society for him to score next one. But, he took unusually long – more than a year, to score his 100th! Apparently, the pressure built on him must have taken its toll.
  3. Your new found love and lust for repeat success
    In majority of cases, taste for being on top is too tempting and you do not want to lose this position. That brings conflict of thoughts in you – your focus on endeavors versus your fear to lose your position. This is when repeat success starts to haunt you.
  4. Your self-portrayal and self-treat
    When success is at your feet, suddenly you tend to portray yourself differently. Having got this credit, you like to debit it with a break, indulgence, even self-treat throwing prudential norms to the wind. To add fuel to your desires, people and media surrounding you would sympathize – “after all you are a human with natural weaknesses”, albeit initially.
  5. Perils of your precision and passion
    When you are very focused, passionate or dedicated on one or more areas of your activities, styles, traits or talent, it is very common that you would ignore or become weak in canonically connected areas or quality. For example, if you focus on quality hard, you would lose speed; if you are too decent, you cannot be tough and so on. So, on one hand you gain from your strengths, on the other hand you’re ignoring the canonically connected parameters or areas would start to hurt you!

How to manage, when you are at your Best

  1. Get governed by your Top Line
    There are certain rules, which should be on top of your mind, regardless of “time, space, status or significance of what you do”:
    1. Hide nothing
      If you feel like hiding what you do; there is bound to be something wrong! “Do what you don’t have to hide” is the most beautiful and simple rule as deterrent to do something knowingly or unknowingly wrong. It would make you automatically ethical, eloquent and elegant!!
    2. Hurt no one
      Avoid all such actions, which can hurt someone. Otherwise, it is costly and complicated for you.
    3. Help everyone
      Within your possibilities, make sure that your work would help as many people as possible.
    4. Happiness for self and others
      Do not do anything, which does not make you happy or conversely, what you ought to do, feel happy doing it. Also, see that your actions make others happy as reasonably as possible.
    5. Health – never ignore
      You need to be healthy to accomplish what you want or aim at. It is unwise to ever assume that you can compromise health and still get there.
    6. Holistic in approach
      Be very cautious about canonic connection between what you do and what you tend to ignore, as mentioned above. Do not overlook surrounding parameters or areas, while you focus on mainstream. This would help you not only manage your strengths; but also emerging weaknesses!!
    7. History must not haunt
      Assess or evaluate upfront whatever you plan to do, should not come back to haunt you. It is again a great self-deterrent to not to break prudential norms of society you live in.
                       – Above constitutes your “7H Top Line”-
  2. Step down
    Once you have reached your best or peak level, continue only till you are able to create values and/or growth or fulfill remaining objectives. After that, step down and choose another course or journey to climb up. It means to abandon the same position and not what you have learnt and experienced.
    Our memories work best for the last instance/s. So, there is a grace in stepping down at right time. Everyone would cherish all the more! Stepping down opens new opportunity for you to choose another course and excel again and more importantly, keeping the Worst away.

So, before you do anything, always remember and follow your “7H Top Line”. Once done, remember and implement 1 Step Bottom (Down) Line! You would be the Winner all way!!

Comments

10 responses to “When the Best in you starts to bite, then….”

  1. ajay koul Avatar
    ajay koul

    excellent and practical.

    1. murli Avatar

      I am very thankful for your comments.

  2. Harshad Sonawane Avatar
    Harshad Sonawane

    This one is an amazing article to read followed by the previous one. Five D’s in first paragraph is an eye-opener, 7H is a bare truth; full of reality about the human nature which is faced at some juncture and at some point of time.

    1. murli Avatar

      I am extremely thankful to you for your feedback as well as intelligent analysis! Very well orchestrated!!

  3. shreya Avatar
    shreya

    Excellent Post !! Sir

    1. murli Avatar

      I am very thankful to you for your comments and interest!

  4. Rudra Avatar
    Rudra

    Adding to your sentence (what goes up, ultimately comes down; but, what matters most “how and from what height one comes down!”)………… Another thing that matters is how you survived your life while you’re at your peak… that “little time of survival experience” will help you when you eventually think about coming down and start afresh!!

    And as they say, you should step down exactly while you’re at your very best, not when you’re proceeding towards your worst.

    “One should quit, before being forced to quit”

    Nice continuation to the earlier post!!
    Cheers!! 🙂

    1. murli Avatar

      I am pleased with your comments. Also, thanks for your well thought views! Yes, quitting at the right time is a real dignity, which many think, otherwise, a disgrace!!

  5. Kaushik Roy Chowdhury Avatar
    Kaushik Roy Chowdhury

    Great article that supplements the earlier article and would help a person to maintain balance when he has reached his top potential.

    1. murli Avatar

      Stated very well! Thanks for your comments.

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