Sure, it would be great if you could just leapfrog over the people in front of you. If you could skip making the investments of time, energy and money into skill - and credential-building and go straight to the rewards. As Jack Kerouac once said, though, "Walking on water wasn't built in a day." What's more, the learning process itself can be very rewarding.
If you think success involves more than that and you want to fly higher, you'll have to dig a little deeper. When clinical psychologist Charles Garfield first researched super achievers in business, he wanted to know what made them different. In his book Peak Performers (1986, New York: Avon Books), Garfield reveals the secret that enables these executives to achieve consistently impressive and satisfying results without burning out. Says Garfield: "The bottom line for peak performers is that they went and pursued their dreams."
If you're a pragmatist, this theory may sound absurdly idealistic. Yet it's true that ideals are powerful motivators. As Hans Selye, a prominent researcher on stress in human life, says, “'Realistic people' with 'practical aims' are rarely as realistic or practical in the long run as the dreamers who pursue their dreams."
Why? Because dreamers who are committed to making their visions come true often keep a close eye on anything and anyone that might interfere with their ability to bring the dream to life. Their intense ambition can make them incredibly pragmatic when it comes to achieving their goals. At the heart of every peak performer, Garfield found a de sire to excel at something the person truly cared about. In these achievers, economic self-interest combined with other, more spiritual, values involving creativity and service. These values became leverage points to excel.
Having such a spiritual tie-in enables you to meet some of your deeper needs. Without it, you become highly susceptible to burnout, no matter how talented and ambitious you are.
A Turn for the Worse Burnout is a sign that something has gone amiss in your work life. For a highly successful 32-year-old real-estate agent in Chicago, burnout was more a crisis of the spirit than body (despite her very long work hours). Having labored so hard to get what she wanted, she discovered that she actually wanted something else.
At first, she couldn't quite put her finger on the problem. Activities she had once enjoyed, such as following up leads, showing houses and closing deals, now felt tedious and boring. Her beeper - which she had once prized as a personal symbol of indispensability - became a nuisance at best. More often, it seemed like an electronic jail holding her captive. Pretty soon she found herself saying that she no longer cared if she sold "one more stupid house." She preferred a long weekend with her husband. She had the Sunday blahs and the Monday blues, and could barely drag herself out of bed in the morning.
Maybe she needed a vacation. Her life was out of balance. She reasoned that no one can work seven days a week under that kind of pressure without burning out. A week in the Bahamas was helpful. But the Sunday they returned, she had the Sunday blahs and Monday blues all over again. Financial success notwithstanding, she longed for a different kind of work experience. She wanted a job that would be less about making money and more about social service. But poverty didn't appeal to her, either. Financial compromise, not sacrifice, became her war cry. Armed with a better understanding of her own needs, she found her answer in corporate social work (aka, employee assistance counseling), where she could use her business skills in a more helping profession.
