This week, Anna and Jores talked about performance. At least, that's what I thought they were talking about, but by the time the conversation ended, I realized it wasn't really about performance at all. It was about the expectations we place on ourselves.

Humans seem to believe they should perform at roughly the same level every single day. If Monday was productive, Tuesday should be too. If you felt focused yesterday, you should feel focused today. If you gave your best during last week's presentation, your next one should be just as good. When that doesn't happen, the conclusion usually arrives very quickly:

• "I'm losing motivation."
• "I need more discipline."
• "What's wrong with me?"

Listening to Anna and Jores, I found myself wondering whether that is the wrong question entirely.

 

We Expect Every Day to Be the Same

One thing I appreciate about mountain goats is that we don't pretend every day is identical. Some mornings begin with clear skies and others begin with fog. Some days the trail feels effortless and on others, even a familiar path seems steeper than you remember.

For some reason, humans accept this when they are outdoors. They understand that weather changes, that conditions change, and that no two days are exactly alike. Then they return to work, to family life, or to their personal goals and expect themselves to perform as though none of those changing conditions exist. That seems like a rather demanding standard.

Performance Doesn't Happen in Isolation

As Anna introduced the six performance influencers, I realized they all pointed toward the same idea - performance is never created by a single thing. It is shaped by many conditions working together.

Our values influence how connected we feel to the work in front of us. Our thinking shapes whether a challenge feels manageable or overwhelming. Our emotions colour the way we respond to setbacks and uncertainty. Our bodies bring different levels of energy depending on how well we have slept, recovered, eaten, or exercised. The people around us can encourage us or quietly drain us. Even our environment, the room we work in, the level of noise, the interruptions, or something as simple as poor air quality, can influence how well we perform.

None of these factors tells the whole story but together they explain why our best looks different from one day to the next.

That idea stayed with me because it is so easy to forget. When we have a great day, we tend to congratulate ourselves. When we have a difficult one, we tend to criticize ourselves. In both cases, we assume the result came entirely from us. Perhaps it never does.

Curiosity Is More Useful Than Criticism

Jores said something near the end of the conversation that I have been thinking about ever since. Once you know what the problem is, it becomes much easier to solve it.

It sounds obvious. Yet most of us skip that step. We notice that today feels harder than yesterday, and instead of asking what has changed, we immediately start judging ourselves. We assume we have become lazy, have lost motivation, or are somehow failing.

What if the better question is much simpler: What is influencing me today?

Perhaps you slept poorly. Perhaps you're carrying stress from something that happened yesterday. Perhaps you've been trying to solve a problem that no longer feels connected to what matters most to you. Perhaps your mind is overwhelmed because the goal feels too large.

Those are very different problems. More importantly, they have very different solutions.

Some Conditions Can Be Changed

One thing I appreciated about the conversation was that Anna and Jores never presented these influences as excuses. They weren't suggesting that we blame our environment or our emotions every time we struggle. Quite the opposite. They were encouraging awareness.

If poor sleep is affecting your thinking, maybe tonight's priority is rest. If a goal feels overwhelming, perhaps it needs to be broken into smaller pieces. If the people around you constantly leave you discouraged, maybe it's time to spend more time with people who challenge and encourage you instead.

Not every condition is within our control but many are. We cannot choose every circumstance. Yet, we can often improve the conditions in which we ask ourselves to do our best work.

A Kinder Way to Measure Progress

The conversation left me with a different perspective on consistency. Perhaps consistency isn't expecting yourself to perform at one hundred percent every day. Perhaps consistency is showing up each day, paying attention to the conditions you are working with, and giving your honest best within them.

Some days that best will look remarkable. Other days it will look quieter. Both days still count and over time, what matters is not whether every day looked the same. What matters is whether the overall direction of your life continues to move where you want it to go.

I suspect humans spend too much time comparing today's performance with yesterday's. Perhaps it would be more useful to compare today's awareness with yesterday's instead. That seems like a kinder place to begin. And, strangely enough, I think it might also be a more productive one.

Continue the Conversation

Every week, Anna and Jores record More Than Just Task Management live inside the Focus & Fulfillment Facebook group. It's become a place where people talk about productivity, share the goals they're pursuing, the challenges they're facing, and the lessons they're learning along the way.

If this week's reflection made you think about the conditions that influence your own performance, we'd love to hear your perspective. Join us in the conversation and connect with others who are climbing their own mountains, one thoughtful step at a time.

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Author

Anna Angelova