Four Signs You Are Working Beyond Your Capacity

To accept that your role is too big for you is a very destabilising thought. When I recently challenged a Managing Director that she was working beyond her capacity she replied ‘I just can’t think that way.’

That was the only answer I could ever expect. To challenge an executive in this way speaks directly to their ego. But to think that any human can keep rising higher and higher to every challenge lacks logic — everyone has an upper limit.

When an executive role (or any role for that matter) begins to push your upper limit look for these signs that you are working beyond your capacity:

1. You wake up tired.
Working day and night leaves little time to sleep and when you do your brain keeps writing to-do lists because your mind never left the desk.

2. Your language is direct and your physical energy is manic.
You feel agitated for no reason like you constantly must be doing something. You are permanently attached to your phone, checking emails or messages with every free minute.

3. You don’t have time to exercise.
You don’t have the energy or the time to train. But, you lack energy because you haven’t exercised in weeks. You struggle to stop the cycle.

4. Uncharacteristically you display uncontrolled eating.
You demolish the tim tams in the work kitchen throughout the day and then buy take away because you don’t have time to cook at night. This isn’t like you, but really this is the new you.

It is safe to assume that you are handling more responsibility that you were 10 years ago, yet your body has 10 more years on the clock.

What you must accept is that the body slows when the mind needs it most.

In those 10 years, you have acquired many professional skills but have you put the same work into improving your physical capacity?

The only way to increase your levels of mental, physical and emotional energy is to prioritize your health with the same importance as a work project. Until your health and your work are equal your functional capacity will be in a state of decline.