Evaluating Your Baseline Level Work

I can’t help but think of the Toby Keith lyric, “I’m as good once as I ever was.” The lyric doesn’t come to mind for the reasons you might think, either. Surely, it’s not the reason he had in mind. In his song, the aging country star is communicating that while he might not be the young buck he once was, that he could go to the well once more and find his best stuff (albeit in a fist fight over a girl).

The reason this lyric can’t escape my mind is because of this idea of a baseline quality of work. If you’re capable of quality work, wonderful. Before you hang your hat on this ability, however, let’s consider a standard that might be more important than your ability to dig deep and produce good work. The question you ought to ask yourself is, “What’s my baseline level of work?”

If you’re not proud of it or it’s not sufficient, I’d venture to bet that being “as good once as [you] ever were” hardly matters. Check your work, check your training, and check your relationships. I’d encourage you to evaluate the daily baseline performance first. We all can turn it on for Friday Night Lights. What’s the Wednesday morning version of these expressions?

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach