I still play pool nearly every day, and over the years I learned the concept of "pocket speed." That means you hit a ball with just enough force to let the ball...barely...drop... into the pocket. The reason? Well, if you hit a ball too hard, it can bounce out. And if you're aiming for the side pocket, using less force will let the ball continue into the pocket if it glances off the sharp edge, as opposed to ricocheting back onto the table. Relaxing and playing with "touch" will bring better results.
The same holds true in many sports. A few years ago I found myself alone on the basketball court at the health club. I remembered how I used to make half-court shots as a kid, and thought I'd try one. No one was looking, so I fired away... and dropped to the floor like I'd been shot by a sniper. I'd torn the rotator cuff in my shoulder. You see, my brain was still 18 years old and didn't want to admit my body was 40. (I made the shot, by the way.)
One year later after surgery, rehab, and a reminder from the surgeon that I was middle-aged, I picked up a golf club and found my drives went straight as an arrow. My wicked slice, the result of trying to kill the ball off the tee, was gone. Since I no longer had the strength in my shoulder, I was swinging easier, and getting better results.
At this juncture you're saying, "Okay, Grape, enough with the sports analogies. Is there some journalism-related lesson somewhere in our imminent future?"
Well, yeah, there is.
Most of you are simply trying too hard.
You see, there's a difference between working smarter and working harder. And watching a lot of resume tapes as I do, I see a lot of young people trying way too hard.
Most of the problems are on the anchor desk. You don't have to be a body language expert to see the hunched shoulders, the tightened facial expressions, or the lack of a smile that accompany the over-enunciated robotic delivery. In many cases the packages are so very different from the anchoring. The delivery on the packages is relaxed and conversational, while reading a prompter seems to turn many into androids. But then we see the standups that don't match the package delivery. Again, the rigid posture and obviously over-memorized script that give off a very unnatural look.
The quest to be perfect makes you look just the opposite.
Trying too hard can also filter into way into the job hunting experience. You edit your tape, and send out a few. No results? "There must be something drastically wrong! I have to re-edit it!" So you re-edit, again and again, when there may be nothing wrong with the first effort. The other part of this equation is the obsession with job hunting; it can consume your life, so much so that you often miss the experience you're having in the present.
I just rented a movie called "Hot Tub Time Machine." (Don't roll your eyes, it was pretty damn funny.) At one point one of the characters decides to see "What surprises the universe has in store."
That's pretty good advice, when you stop and think about it. While you always want to give your best effort, sometimes 110 percent is too much. Sometimes taking things down a notch, relaxing, and playing the game of life with "pocket speed"
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