May 10, 2024: progress over perfection

Do you ever have one of those weeks where - despite every action you take - you still feel like you're stuck in one place?!

If that's you this week too, I feel you.

A fitness & nutrition coach I follow on Instagram, Danny Matranga, recently said something that really stuck with me. It was about living a healthy lifestyle, but it applies equally to business and pool operations in my opinion.

To paraphrase: a very real barrier to success is that the most effective programs are boring. And nowadays our brains don't like boring. At all. Being able to be "ok" with boring is the best way to be successful because, frankly, boring works. Bouncing between "exciting" but unproven ideas doesn't work.

With swimming pools or operating any business, it's the consistent daily grind that results in success, not cramming the night before a big deadline or inspection. That grind is tiring, and sometimes feels really pointless, even for people who are highly intrinsically motivated to think about compliant and safe pool operations. But the proof is in small, incremental progress towards a bigger goal - not rare flashes of high-profile perfection or execution.

They also say in business that you're always reaping or sowing for the next season, so keeping digging: a year from now you'll be much further along than you even realize.

Thanks for being here with me.

Katie Crysdale
Lakeview Aquatic Consultants Ltd.