Article
The Pain of Performance
I will start this week’s article by making it clear there are two things I really dislike and if I can avoid I will, Pain and Violence. The good news is I believe, unless you find yourself in extreme circumstances, violence is easily avoided and therefore in most cases a none issue.
Pain on the other hand is almost a necessary evil which in some shape or form we all live with to various degrees. It can be the pain of sacrifice, the pain of loss, physical pain or mental pain and many more in between. The pain of sacrifice is one that I believe all of us can relate to over the course of 2020.
The reason I started thinking about this was I have recently been getting treatment for my knee with a very good sports physio to help with my recovery so I can keep training for the Ironman I have signed up to next year. Anyway, the treatment that I have received has followed a pattern of intense pain, followed by a couple of days of dull pain and then a feeling of relief which feels like my knee is improving. It is at this point that I go to another appointment and the same cycle happens again, each time slightly less intense than the last one.
Well hasn’t this year been like my sports physio for a lot of businesses? I think so and certainly it feels like it for Chase & Holland anyway. March and the first lockdown were like my first physio appointment - eye wateringly painful and sending all sorts of thoughts through your head. Like me happily training before my injury, Chase & Holland were well on the way to a record 1st Quarter and we believed a record year. This has not proved to be the case however, the disruption that we have since experienced has really improved what we do and how we do it.
As a business we have improved our best practices, we have looked for better ways of engaging with our customers and we have looked at ways to be better employers and employees. November will be the best month we have had since March and will actually be a better result than the same time last year.
Since going through the pain cycle personally, it has challenged me to look at other details of my training and look to improve what I can, which I would never have done without the pain cycle I have been in. I think the same can be said for Chase & Holland. The year 2020 will be remembered as a painful year in so many ways, but also a year that we improved and changed so many things that we probably wouldn’t have done for a number of years.
I would not wish another 2020 on anyone and I hope it is a once in a generation event, but it is pleasing to know that out of pain often comes better performance. Equally, hopefully all the things we have learned personally, as a business and a society are not forgotten. I started by saying at the beginning of this that I dislike pain, but maybe we all need it from time to time in order to find the best we can be.
