Overwhelming Good

Two weeks ago, my productivity was at unprecedented levels. I was getting up early every day, getting things done, and making significant progress in multiple realms of my life. This was huge. I was being consistent in my productivity, too. Sure, I was still finding ways to squeeze in my leisure time, whether watching TV shows or playing a bit of video games, but the point was that I still was blowing past performance out of the water.

This week, Maggie and I spent a couple hours brainstorming what needed to happen to actualize our Probity idea of a code academy. When Neal spoke to us later in the meeting, Maggie mentioned something to Neal about “turning on campaign mode” (The first time the three of us worked together was on Neal’s ASG Presidential campaign in Spring 2008). Neal’s demeanor, which had seemed slightly distracted previously, turned instantly serious.

“Got it. Campaign mode. I get it. I know what to do.”

Listening to Neal on the phone, I raised my eyebrows as Neal expressed his understanding. I was slightly skeptical. Little did I know that not only would Neal go into beast mode, but something would change internally with me, too.

Without any extra effort, I have found myself driven to perform, even when it’s not expected. We have a team meeting, and I am told we have an hour of free time. Instead of napping, I find myself working on our workplan. Whereas I normally am adamant about getting at least seven hours of sleep a night, I find my mind racing throughout the night such that I can’t stop working on our code academy. I have a burning excitement inside of me that I had no idea existed. It’s tapping an undiscovered well of potential where I am not struggling to do work, but have trouble taking myself away from it. In social situations where people have no interest in what I’m doing, I find myself talking about it, find myself drawn to continuing my work over continuing my conversation. It’s baffling me where this came from, and although I’m tremendously curious and hopeful that this remains permanent, more than anything else at this point, I’m just riding the wave of fury, doing what needs to be done and more. Every day, all night, all day. Code Academy, we’re coming.