G is for Doing Good Work After Hitting Gold

Different people behave in different ways after working hard and hitting a seam of gold. The way they behave can determine their future.

Some people keep working and follow the good habits that helped them to hit gold.

Some people make good decisions that enable them to capitalise on hitting gold.

Some people think they have made it, down tools and stop doing the good things that helped them to hit gold.

Great champions in sports, for example, have a track record of following good habits after winning their first major prize. They may pause for a short while to regather their strength and plan their future strategy. They then work hard to achieve ongoing success.

Looking back, when have you followed this pattern in your own way? You may have done this after finding satisfying work, winning a competition, gaining a sale, publishing a book or whatever. What did you do right then?

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to do the following things.

Describe a specific situation in the past when you did good work after hitting gold.

Describe the specific things you did then to do good work.

Describe the specific results that happened when you did good work after hitting gold.

Great workers seem to enjoy following certain principles as well as achieving prizes. They tend to build on what works. They then pursue their chosen principles to achieve ongoing success.

Imagine that you are coaching somebody who has recently achieved a goal. How can you help them to develop? The person must obviously have the will to keep growing, but they may also need to take some time out.

You can then meet them to explore the possible roads they can travel in the future. There are several routes they can follow.

They can take more time out and, for a while, enjoy the fruits of their success.

They can reflect on what they really want in life, clarify their priorities and choose to follow a particular route.

They can clarify the pluses and minuses involved in pursuing their chosen path and, if they wish, commit to doing their best to achieve success.

Imagine that the person wants to develop in their particular field and deliver another success. There are many tools you can use for helping them to take this route.

The Positive Approach is one that I often use. Here is an introduction to the approach.

One soccer team used this approach to rehearse how to win games when leading 1-0 with fifteen minutes remaining. They had a pattern of taking leads – striking gold – only to concede and lose the matches.

The temptation was to feel depressed, criticise and look for scapegoats. That did not help anybody, so they tried a different approach.

The team recalled times when they had won matches after holding leads. What did they do right then? What were the principles they followed? How could they follow their successful patterns in the future?

The psychological aspect was crucial. When closing out games the team had been calm and controlled the play. The players followed the team’s agreed principles, kept moving and helped each other by creating lots of passing options. They had then seen out the games.

The players did the opposite in the games they had lost. They had stopped following the team’s principles, began looking at the clock and became paralysed. They had stopped controlling the game.

The team clarified what they could do the next time they were leading by the odd goal. They pursued these strategies and become more comfortable being in front. They learned how to keep building once they had struck gold.

Let’s return to your own life and work. Looking ahead, can you think of a personal or professional situation when you may do good work and hit gold? What do you want to then? How can you build to achieve future success?

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to do the following things.

Describe a specific situation in the future when you may do good work and hit gold.

Describe the specific things you can do then to do good work after hitting gold.

Describe the specific things that may result from you doing good work after hitting gold.