Self-Motivation: Swim or Drown

a lot of the vast knowledge which I had gained over the years were literally ones where I was thrown in the deep end. And are the most overwhelming moments you will ever face....But they are also a goldmine to learn from if you are able to adapt to the environment that you are placed in. I can understand where it is easier said than done. You just have to do it and then be done.

These situations not only pushed me to face and analysis pressure differently but it enabled me to pick up new things a lot quicker and able to structure my plans of attack better. The moment you panic when under any kind of pressure your thinking will just halt and will eventually freeze up.

Nerves is something im always going to feel I think maybe everyone feels nerves and chances are you will never stop feeling them but this is an acquired taste of an emotion. Because nerves set the high expectations that "you" specifically want to achieve, and the moment you give into them then the domino effect which comes with pressure will have you folding very quickly.

This particular article doesn't necessarily tell you any tips, tricks, loopholes or secrets to overcome these events....even with the old cliche of picture everyone naked etc. The best thing I can do is share some of the experiences which I faced that addressed the exact hurdles so that you can see exactly how I overcame them and hopefully can be applicable to you.

I have two examples of this and the interesting part about both of them is that both of these situations were back to back!

First encounter in the deep end

When I had first turned 21 (just to give a timeline) I had to deliver the following projects deliverable's

1. Deploy OCS 2007 (Office Communications Server) though we all now know this as Skype for Business
2. Deploy SCVMM 2008
3. Deploy SCOM 2007
4. Design a new AD & Dynamics AX 2009 implementation

Now I was very eager to tear into anything at that time but bear in mind the role I had come from before was merely a 1st/2nd line support role with the very odd 3rd line task thrown at me so on the outside looking in that seems quite raw for me to be thrown into the mix.

I must have been invited to at least 5 meetings a day about all of the above and even worse when technical leads or managers were in different offices, I literally had a queue of Architects just waiting for me at my desk looking for answers which I just simply didn't have. I was just behind the door going to my desk and saw them just waiting and pacing so I went the opposite direction until they left.

It really was game on at this point as I was really panicking. Wondering if I had really been thrown into a deep end where I was already drowning....But the next day I had to snap out of it and come to terms with some facts

Reality of the situation: Next steps

Only you are able to tackle this and get yourself out of this. Once you accept it's literally just you...Will you then be able to form a game plan. So I decided to take charge and get back to everybody that was waiting for me and pick up the leads of where they last were with comms, project deadlines and what was outstanding as they understood that handovers as such was not provided to me.

I developed not only a process for this situation, but a process for myself which I still use to this day.
Also understand your limits, as when you do you'll have a better understanding on what your strengths and your weaknesses are. No matter how technical or eager you are you will never know everything.

The real truth of the matter is that you're not expected to know everything, but the illusion of expectations from yourself and others feels like you need to be a guru. However, the advantage of knowing this is that you can be that guru but not without assessing your strengths and what to build up on. Now these sound like very simple things or that it's telling you something you already know, but when pressure is on common sense flies out the window so the power of re-iteration comes to life.

I knew how good I was and can be technically and the same eagerness to work on anything and everything....But in order to unlock that again I had to get over the overwhelming situation and just do it and when I did, everything fell into place perfectly. Had a confidence stronger than which I ever had before, with all design meetings done and wrapped up, took on some big project tasks and really pushed the boundaries on what I knew and this was my very first time on using any system centre technologies and it was a wrap from there.

I did so much work and really unlocked my ability until one day it was the end of my probation period and my appraisal day and soon as I got into the office a TDA shook my hand and said "absolutely great work".
I said "Why what happened lol"
"Everything is all working, the SCOM is monitoring the whole estate, VMM is managing all of the developer VM estates and more importantly the OCS 2007 external communications was working!"
See I had a task to get OCS 2007 to be able to ring externally like mobile phones, telephones and other organisations and this was how I also went into the Collaborative Services section.
The Dynamics AX project was a massive one which I was a big part of that has quite a massive space at present. I haven't worked on Dynamics AX since this time but because it was such an in-depth project I remember the whole technology pretty damn well!

Second encounter in the deep end

And then I had another huge task for me to overcome and this was when I worked for a consultancy when I was 22 and I had to deliver a presentation on SCCM 2007. Now you might look at this and think to yourself that doesn't actually seem like a big deal? But it is when you have only just touched SCCM 2007 for a couple of weeks and 1000 technical architects are on the web conference with about 25% of them being from Microsoft!

Reality of the situation: Next steps

So how do I handle this situation with all of the experience of learning from the last one...quite simple....panic again 😀
Well not exactly...I had created a detailed PowerPoint Presentation from a dev lab which I had created and also with a balance between books covering SCCM especially where the “SCCM Unleashed books” were concerned, and had a great balance of knowledge between both.

So when the time came to lead the presentation, there was those nerves once again which came especially from starting the first slide and introducing myself to the audience. It was very nerve wrecking even with dialogue/bullet points I had put together. When it comes to formulating words and presenting at this level it really can be overwhelming but then I reached a point where I just let go and didn't care about the nerves or what my perception of how others felt I was doing and after that everything was fluent.

The truth of these situations is that you are and were always equipped with the skills, knowledge and mind frame to what you were brought in to do, the only person that stops you from unlocking this is you when you let the situation overcome you.

This was only a 15 minute presentation but every minute can be excruciating when folding.
After the presentation was done an architect came up to me and asked "Was that your first time doing a presentation?" I replied "yes" and then they responded saying "that's one of the best presentations I've seen for anyone doing it for the first time"
To be honest I didn't even know or felt like I did anything such as this but I guess when I let myself go and just do it came across like it was just another day.

Overall message