Great Quotes: Focus on Experience
Tanmay Vora
In a competitive world obsessed with goals, people recommend that we should periodically review our performance. Performance appraisals in organizations are almost a necessary evil. The problem with focusing excessively on our ‘performance’ is that performance is always judged by others, by some external entity. When you constantly try to align yourself to external expectations, you dilute your own expression and voice.
I read the following quote in Peter Bergman’s recent Harvard Business Review post titled “Stop Focusing on Your Performance”. He says,
When you’re performing, your success is disturbingly short-lived. As soon as you’ve achieved one milestone or received a particular standing ovation, it’s no longer relevant. Your unending question is: what’s next?
When you’re experiencing though, it’s not about the end result, it’s about the moment. You’re not pursuing a feeling after, you’re having a feeling during. You can’t be manipulated by a fickle, outside measure because you’re motivated by a stable internal one.
Here is a related quote from my 2010 post titled “Enjoy the Process”:
Focusing on the moment, on task currently on our hands enables us to fully express ourselves. One of the best gifts we can give ourselves is to enjoy the work while we are doing it (being in the moment) – and expressing our skills fully. It is both gratifying and satisfying.
The joy is in the work itself. Focus on experience and performance will eventually take care of itself.
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Photo Credit: Stephan Comelli’s Flickr Photostream
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And as some wise man rightly said: “Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”. Nicely explained Tanmay !