There will occasionally be times when the work and the manner in which it is done will appear to fall short of expectations:
The mission gets slowed down by a colossal road block that you and your team could not have foreseen.
Bad information is received from a trustworthy source.
The first several iterations of the work created to serve others is met with a chilling silence.
It’s okay and here is why:
It’s okay because stumbling and experiencing frustration over outcomes that we care deeply about is part of the human condition. It’s okay because the act of undershooting does not need to dictate the quality of you or your team member’s determination, compassion, and abilities to learn, improve, and strive forward.
It’s a given that a marathoner will run some miles faster and others slower; likewise, for every sprint of uninterrupted productivity, you can expect the occasional stumble to slow you down.
When the stumbles do happen, resolve to learn what you can and show up the next day. Because when you continue to learn and show up, everything balances out in the end with you eventually recognizing just how far you, the team, the work, and the people you serve have come.
The ability to move forward well depends on you and your peers receiving compassion for these realities.
In fact I saw a Tweet the other day from Tobi Lutke of Spotify who was responding to someone who said they had a paid newsletter. As in they paid their employees to read their newsletter. And Lutke was saying that he also had a paid podcast at Spotify for his employees -> they are compensated for listening. It's like a great way to train. The old school way of paying a media company to make boring ass training video with actors and stuff is just so ineffective and expensive.
To your point, I think most misery comes from not properly understanding what you signed up. The people who ask for your enrollment are largely responsible for letting you know this.
I wrote something in our 'hooks' tribe inspired by this post.