Fasting practice

If you’ve ever had to do a dietary fast, then you’ve learnt a curious trick about the body.

The first day, your body is screaming for you to put nutrients in the body. On the second day, your body starts to adapt – you might be a little light-headed but otherwise you realize you’re not going to die. On the third day, this is when the magic happens.. You almost feel better than ever before! Your body starts to burn fat for fuel and you realize that you have a ton of energy! Amazing!

Now the trick is that each time you fast, your body adapts to the conditions, faster. Your body learns to get into a great state, quicker.

A similar thing happens when a team has to “do without” an extra person or without the full budget.

First, the entire team starts to complain. Then if this situation continues, some might even jump ship. But if the rest of the team believes in the cause, they will rally together. They will work smarter to cover for the team’s deficiencies. And then they will have the project completed on time and within budget.

As a leader, you must always recognize this “without” phase as a fasting period. It is exactly the same as what happens to your body without food. You can mentally prepare your team for the challenge ahead because you know what will happen. Better yet you can even start “fasting training” and encourage the team to do without.

The fact is you will have to do without at some point. You will be under-resourced or under-staffed – that’s a given.

Will you be ready for that fast?