Photo by Justyn Warner on Unsplash
We all know that person who always looks the same. Never seems to gain any weight and always looks like they are in great shape. They do a great job of managing their conditioning and deconditioning cycles so neither cycle strays too far from the trend line. Others tend to have higher volatility.
You are either conditioning or deconditioning. No one can achieve a level of conditioning and maintain it indefinitely. The important part is that we recognize conditioning cycles and keep the trend line going in an upward direction.
Don't worry. I'm not turning this into a fitness blog. Conditioning cycles apply to our professional lives as well as our personal lives. We face plenty of obstacles and challenges with the seasonal nature of our business and other demands. We need to minimize the deconditioning cycles in those busy periods and focus on an increased level of overall conditioning in the areas of personal development, management and leadership, relationships and communication, project management, and technology skills, as well as our critical technical skills. After all, we have a greater need for the leverage stemming from those skills during the busy seasons.
While I’m a firm believer of making sure we keep our conditioning trend lines moving in an upward direction, that belief does not pertain to our level of responsibility, or rank. I understand that not everyone aspires to make partner or to move past their current position. Maintaining a level of responsibility is completely acceptable as long as we still focus on improving our levels of conditioning or skill development.
To use another sports metaphor, we don't need everyone to constantly look for a more challenging slope to ski down, but we do want everyone to work on technique so it looks easy and they're not exhausted at the bottom. Then they can decide whether to go up for another run, look for a more challenging run, or just call it a day knowing that they achieved some incredible results for clients, themselves and the firm.
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Brian Amann can be reached at 303.921.5310 or send an email.
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