8 Ways to Build Your Stamina Muscle

Glenn, a junior project manager, worked on a mission-critical 18-month program led by Sara, the senior PM. Glenn was very ambitious, worked long hours, and constantly strived to take on more and more work.

About six months into the program, Glenn was feeling exhausted. He became less focused and easily distracted. He always looked tired. He put on weight. His team recognized the change in him and began to lose faith in his ability to execute.

Glenn had always been a proud PM who had never seen the need to get counsel from others on how hard he worked. But as he observed how Sara seemed so focused and intentional in her work, he decided to ask her about it in their next 1:1.

“Sara, I’m barely able to keep up and am exhausted. My team can see it in me, my wife and kids see it. You seem to have it all together. How are you doing it?”

Sara smiled. “Ah, sometimes I put on a good face. There are many nights where I’m driving home yelling at myself in the car. I’ll bet other drivers get a real charge out of seeing me so animated.”

Glenn grinned at her humble response. “I’ll bet you have those moments, but we only see the focused Sara.”

Sara turned more serious. “Glenn, there is something I learned a long time ago that I needed to focus on. I was a lot like you--very ambitious, burning the midnight oil, always wanting more. A senior PM I was working for saw me at the end of my rope and gave me some great advice which I’m going to give you. She said that if I was going to scale, I couldn’t rely on brute force to get things done; I had to build my stamina muscle.”

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

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