Tuesday 8 August 2017

You Work Hard and Sacrifice Much - But How Much and Why?

Linds Redding is the inspiration for today’s story, one that returns me to a theme I have touched on several times these last 112 days.

We often know we want to go about our lives differently and have genuine intentions to do so – just as soon as the next hurdle is cleared, the next project completed, the following quarterly results land or Board papers are completed.

We may be waiting for the campaign to begin, the review process to complete or the strategic plan to be approved. The list of reason to delay implementation of our own needs in preference of perceived business requirements is literally endless. Sound familiar?

For many years, I was an expert at having reasons to prioritise a (perceived) business need over my "other" life. My reward was in part, Quadruple Bypass surgery at age 49.

The “Fear of Missing Out” or FOMO is considered a relatively new phenomenon, one owned by our Social Media driven Millennial generation.

Not so.

Chances are, if you, like me, have continually prioritised (often imaginary) business priorities over your own you (we) may also suffer FOMO.

Missing out on inclusiveness, praise, responsibility, recognition, promotion, bonus. A fear of not being there when the curtain comes down on the project or the results are announced. A fear of not being present when the announcement is made, or worse still, of not having a say in what is being announced. A fear of not being in the know.

As hard and painful as it is to accept, in our corporate life, no matter how much we may not want to acknowledge it, we may not really matter that much. Like it or not, we do "stuff" and if we didn’t, someone else would do our "stuff". We dare not let them do our stuff.

Linds Redding was an Advertising Art Director based in New Zealand.

He recounted catching up with past colleagues after an absence of 6 months and noting how his eyes would glaze over as they bragged about who had the least sleep and the most take away food. “I haven’t seen my wife since January, I can’t feel my legs any more and I think I have scurvy but another three weeks and we’ll be done.”

He further noted in respect of his own career; “Countless late nights and weekends, holidays birthdays, school recitals and anniversary dinners were willingly sacrificed at the altar of some intangible but infinitely worthy higher cause. It would all be worth it in the long run….”

I am quoting from an article he wrote in March 2012 titled "A Short Lesson in Perspective". I encourage you to click on the title and read it. I must warn however, it is a little confronting and a touch challenging if only for its truthfulness -  particularly if you are coming off a late night of toil.
It is all too often a case of "another three weeks and we'll be done" or "all be worth it in the long run".
Isn't it?

Linds Redding was in a position to write and express from the heart, from truth.

Linds Redding passed away in October 2012 aged 52. He had inoperable oesophageal cancer.

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