Why Going All Out is a More Effective Strategy than Saving Some for Later

Going all out scares people. What do you do once you have nothing left?

There’s no turning back. If you stop saving some for later, you have to be fully committed to something. Commitment is rare these days, which is why a lot of people don’t push themselves to empty.

Hipsterism embodies the “I’m too cool to commit” attitude. But here’s a few scenarios in which driving to E proves to be a very effective strategy.

Sports Application

A while back I talked about what it’s like to leave it all on the field. I talked about my athletic days and how there are situations when “selling out” will get you the results you want.

This, of course, can be quite uncomfortable. Nothing about pushing yourself to the your physical limits lets you stay within your comfort zone – which is one reason I’m so attracted to the topic and to sports in general.

When you run till your legs are wobbly, it’s not comfortable. When you tackle a man twice your size, it’s not comfortable. When you put everything into a project at work and exhaust yourself, it’s not comfortable.

Going all out forces you to dig deeper and push yourself beyond your current “limits.” These can be real limitations, but they are usually fabricated in our minds. You are capable of much more than you realize. Most people don’t test those limits so they don’t actually know what they’re capable of.

Sales Application

One of my favorite stories from my previous life in furniture was when we sold out of nearly everything we had.

It was in the early days and our space was only about 3,000 sq ft. There was only 4 or 5 of us working (in the entire company which is now comprised of around 100 people) between the Charleston & Myrtle Beach stores.

My boss, Todd, and I cleaned out our entire showroom/warehouse on a Saturday afternoon. Just the two of us. We had our best day ever in sales, we moved old stuff that was collecting dust, we had people pick up layaways, and we turned some major profits on that day. All we had left was a couple random Clemson and South Carolina print bunkie mattresses!

There used to be a picture floating around of me sweeping the dust off the floor of an empty warehouse after all the deliveries for the day had gone out. That’s the kind of picture that gets hung in the office and stories get told about for years.

We SOLD OUT hard that day and it was one of the best feelings ever. We went home early and we took Sunday off because we didn’t have anything to sell! We had a shipment arrive on Monday and we were ready to get after it so we could do it again.

Going all out is hard to do. But when you look back at an empty warehouse, you see how great of an accomplishment you’ve just made. Every retailers dream is to have an empty warehouse, an empty warehouse usually means a full bank account. 

But that can’t happen if you don’t push your store, your marketing, your sales process, and your business to the brink.

Creative Application

Speaking creatively, there are so many reasons to go all out. As I’ve talked about many times, you have to get out of your comfort zone to really produce something worth creating.

What’s the best way to get out of your comfort zone? Get rid of all your ideas and start fresh. Go all out, and create all the work you’ve got rattling around inside of you.

What you’ll have left will be fresh, not stale like a lot of your ideas you’ve thought about but never explored. And you’ll have to find new ways of expressing them since your old ideas are gone. You’ve got a clean pallet to work with once you’ve gone all out.

There is nothing to hold you back once you start fresh. No old ideas to hang on to. No pre-conceived notions of how to do something. And best of all, no expectations.

When you stop trying to save some for later, your best work comes when you least expect it. Some of my best writing has come after I drained myself on something I thought was going to be a hit.

Whomp Whomp…. The ones I expected to be hits, the ones that I went all out on, turned out to be duds. But what came next just flowed onto the page and people resonated with them so much so that they went viral on social media. I thought when I drained myself, I would produce great work.

But creativity is different. We have to go all out to tap into that next layer of artistic ability. So to do great work, go all out!

• Viral Post 1: Why Counterbalancing Improves our Effectiveness
• Viral Post 2: 9 Hard Lessons I Learned About Freelancing

This section can be summed up from a monologue spoken in a Daft Punk song released about a year ago:

Once you free you mind about the concept of harmony and of music being correct, you can do whatever you want. So nobody told me what to do and so there was no preconception of what to do.
– Giovanni Giorgio

I think one of the best ways to free your mind is to empty it out. Get it all out, sell out, and then start fresh to do your best work.

Recharging

This whole, “go all out” thing doesn’t pan out for workaholics. I used to be one, and I tried it. In retrospect I was not nearly as effective at my job as I could have been during this period.

You can’t go all out all the time. It leads to burnout, forms of abuse, and a downright miserable demeanor. Just like technology, we need to recharge.

For some this is quiet time with a book or meditation. For others it’s a nice dinner with friends (not typically the ones from work). And for some it’s doing new and challenging things that distract you from your work.

Some of the most important breakthroughs have come to people while they were recharging. Einstein came up with the theory of relativity while riding his bike. Isaac Newton discovered gravity while he was resting near an apple tree.

When you let your mind take a break, you allow it to put those puzzle pieces together in a way you didn’t even know would work.

Going All Out

Recharging clears the mind and allows the body to relax. Runners take a rest after they complete a race.

Rich Roll, in his book Finding Ultra, talks about how he is able to get stronger/faster in his down time. When his body is recovering from 40+ mile training runs (talk about pushing yourself to empty). He goes on to explain that the training he does breaks down the body. The rest he takes is when his body recovers and grows.

So where do you need to go all out?

Find that area of your life, whether it’s your work, your art, or your body, and stop saving some for later. It’s time to start going all out and tapping into your real potential.

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What are you thoughts about going all out? 

I look forward to hearing from you below or on Twitter (@mikemccann3), have a great rest of the week!

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