Bare Adequacy

Several years ago I read a book by Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi entitled, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. I found it to be a fascinating work on the meeting place of productivity and happiness. A major premise of the book is that there are a whole lot of people who are productive but not happy, and vice versa.

One particular point the author made has stuck with me; to this day I think of it often. He stated that one aspect of finding the blend between success and happiness is a trait that he calls “Bare Adequacy”. Paraphrasing, this would suggest that I’m good at what I do, but not that good.

I’ve translated this concept into my own language as follows:

I’m good at what I do, and people appreciate that. But I am one step away from being irrelevant and tired to the people I work with, and so I must constantly push to renew, re-create, and re-invent. The strategies I teach must be fresh, and that is a constant challenge. I am adequate, but barely. I had best make sure I am striving to stay ahead of failure.

This concept applies to everyone, but let me speak in particular to the veterans out there. If you’ve lost the joy of a business you have always loved, it might stem from a lack of a sense of ‘bare adequacy’. It might mean that you have reached a plateau and you need to push yourself to entirely new levels.

Let’s look at it this way: you might be completely adequate for a strong market, but that would make you an incomplete sales professional. Perhaps you need to re-think your sense of adequacy for a tough market, where the buyer psychology changes dramatically, where macro-economic shifts effect every single transaction, and where the sale is made in the tiniest corners of the sales process.

Figure it out, and you’ll change the world!

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And yes, you’ll notice something new this week – the opportunity for you to comment on this article. We’ve (finally) introduced a chance for you to sound off in the form of a blog. Don’t be bashful – join in! Let’s make this a community for the thousands of people who read the Shore Thing every week.

I’ll make it easy for you. All you need to do is write a sentence or two (or more, if you like) on the following questions:

Do you struggle with ‘plateaus’ in your own performance? What have you done to deal with those times?
• Why do salespeople get complacent? What do you do to knock yourself out of a complacent mindset?
• How would developing a sense of “bare adequacy” help you to be the best you can be?


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About the Author: Jeff Shore

Jeff Shore is the Founder and CEO of Shore Consulting, Inc. a company specializing in psychology-based sales training programs. Using these modern, game-changing techniques, Jeff Shore’s clients delivered over 145,000 new homes generating $54 billion in revenue last year.