Why your 60% is good enough
Is this the death of the workaholic?
I thought the term workaholic died a death until I brought it back in an interview this week, and so decided to Google it. Turns out, this week it’s also been a big news story. Maybe that was the PR psychic in me.
Do you identify as a workaholic? Do you have to be a workaholic to run a business successfully? I’m not sure. In fact, this is the source of constant internal conflict for me. Convincing myself that my 60 to 80% is fine. More than fine in fact - better than a lot of peoples 100% (not that it’s a competition and I don’t even know who these ‘people’ are that I’m comparing myself to). But I would say that this is my number one daily mantra at the moment, my 60-80% (I’m not sure why I can’t just commit to a 60 or 80 percentage, but anyway), or my three quarters commitment, is adequate. No, good.
I’ve been on this hamster wheel of building one business and running another for so long now, that I’ve only recently (partly thanks to this Substack) reflected on whether or not that’s actually necessary, let alone doing me any good. Forgetting whether it’s healthy for a moment and focusing on the necessity side is key for me. I am energised by doing whatever I feel is essential to keep things moving forward. I’ve been pushing towards one goal and then another - creating the brand, getting it to market, securing retailers, raising investment, launching new products, the social media onslaught (I might have to dedicate a whole post to the perils of social media marketing), other PR and marketing strategies, etc. times a hundred. I feel like a dung beetle, that’s been pushing on with a mound of something much greater than myself for so long, that I won’t let go for risk of it rolling over and crushing me. I’ve not stopped to think if I need to - or should be - continuing on.
The reason I am trying to enforce this mantra on myself is because deep down, I don’t think it is healthy to let work be all consuming (especially as like many colleagues have said in the past ‘it’s PR not ER’, or similar for running a beauty brand). And, I don’t think it is necessary. When you’re a small team (or solo founder), you could be doing a hundred different tasks on any one day, but this doesn’t mean you should. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt from running Faace is that slowing down a little and getting less done (usually meaning you feel less stressed) doesn’t usually impact the bigger picture. Running at 60% doesn’t make you lazy either. If your nature is that 100% means working at a hundred miles an hour, then it’s a form of self-preservation.
I flitter between craving the slow life and being motivated by working at fast pace. Perhaps I don’t need to commit to one thing or another. Perhaps I can be part time workaholic, part-time slacker (reducing to a 60% effort which, like I already said, is probably good enough). I’m not sure, but I don’t think this mantra is doing me any harm and I’m not sure I want to identify as a workaholic really either.