By Jaime Valenzuela (Follow us on LinkedIn)
It is clear to me that there are many of us who are passionate about the work we do. Some of us pursue excellence in the work process. Others are simply seeking to get the job done. There are also those among us who desire to complete their work to the best of their ability. The passion we have for our work or the force that drives us, whatever that may be, is evident in the varied accomplishments I learn about. In my previous post I briefly spoke about one of my passions, my family, to discuss leadership. I share another passion in this post.
Jalen Hurts is the franchise quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. One of Jalen’s most recent accomplishments was leading the Eagles to a 34-31 overtime victory against the Buffalo Bills in an NFL football game. On the other hand, I am the Archivist and Scholarly Communications Lead working in a law library. My most recent accomplishment was finally depositing a manuscript written by one of our University of Arizona College of Law faculty members into our university’s campus repository. This took me nearly two years! Yes, I was reliant on others to get the job done. To some extent, the timeline to get the work done was somewhat out of my control. I like to think that the two years to get to this point was not due to a lack of effort on my part. It took Jalen and the rest of the Eagles a full game and overtime to win. They were down by ten points at halftime. They were down by ten points again in the third quarter. They were down by three points in overtime, and they won. They got the job done. As did I. But were they successful? Was I successful?
Here is a quote from Jalen following the team’s win over the Bills:
“I shake my head and I don’t really know how to feel sometimes, because I just want to play to the standard at all times. I just want to uh lead and play to the standard at all times, and you know that’s why it’s kind of like weird for me. …’Weird’ is just a standard. It’s in a sense manipulative to myself, because winning is the only thing that matters, but the standard is pretty darn important, too. Um that’s what it is.”
So what is the standard Jalen refers to? Zack Berman of AllPHLY defines it in his column following the Eagle win: “But with Hurts, there’s always the standard – the unreachable mark he sets for how he believes he and the team should play.” Simply, I think the standard Jalen is seeking is excellence in the pursuit of perfection. Well, not everybody is Jalen Hurts or playing professional sports. I am not Jalen. Although sometimes, I have a desire to share his passion for the standard. For Jalen, his best performance is required day in and day out to keep his job. From what I’ve read, Jalen’s desire to meet the standard is his life.
For me, my best performance is important too to keep my job. To assist my performance, my institution uses Career Conversations which are “yearly structured discussions between staff members and their supervisors … designed to support staff success and growth through reflection, planning, problem solving, and honest and constructive feedback.” Fortunately, my supervisor provides me with such opportunities on a regular basis through one-on-one meetings. Those interactions are helpful because I want to perform to the best of my ability and be told what corrections, if any, I need to make. But is peak performance necessary day in and day out? For many of us working in our profession, I am sure it feels that way. There is a burden to perform on a 24/7 basis and to get jobs done to the best of one’s ability day in and day out. There is a pursuit of excellence but does that pursuit require perfection?
I’m here to tell you that you need not have a Jalen Hurts mindset, admirable as it may be. Sometimes your best may not be your peak performance and that is okay. Also important is the ability to recognize that others do not share the Jalen Hurts mentality and you need not force it on them. As was recently shared with me, excellence does not always require perfection. Sometimes getting the job done is enough. That said, should you desire to pursue perfection, I don’t wish to stop you. I mean, Jalen is amazing! (Thanks to Nick Piccone @_piccone on X who shares these audio and video clips after each Eagles game). At a minimum, enjoy your accomplishments. They can be hard to come by.
So, was I a success in my most recent accomplishment? Opinions are going to vary but the job did get done. Would I have liked to complete the job sooner? Yes, and there is no reason I can’t do better when presented with another opportunity.
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Notes Between Us (NBU) is a blog about conversations and topics of interest to the writers. The writers are expressing their personal opinions solely. The essays represent their personal beliefs and not those of their workplaces or any organization they are associated with.
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