Crossing over from "Can" to "Can't"

At work, in the last few months, I've gone back and forth from "can" to "can't".  What a difference this makes!

It feels great when the work is challenging, requires all of my creativity, intellect, and social skills.  But often some of my "customers" have been demanding the impossible.  It's a totally different world at work when I know that what I'm being asked to do, what I'm being told is the minimum expectation, cannot be done.  This never happened to me before in over two decades, but it's become commonplace in the last year.

I'm not alone.  Lots of people get put in situations at work where they can't win.  But it's hard to make the transition back and forth.  I almost wish it was always one way or the other so that I could develop consistent coping strategies.  There's one set of attitudes and habits to use when you know you can't deliver what you're being asked to do and your customers don't listen to you when you tell them this is the way it is.  When you're in that situation, you resign yourself to it and get your satisfaction from other things.

But when you cross over again from "can't" back to "can", suddenly you are playing to win, reaching deeply into your reserves to overcome obstacles because you know that success is possible.

The reality is that people CAN ask for too much.  You hope that they don't do this, that they will be satisfied with you if you do your best and you know you've made good decisions and produced good results.  But expectations aren't always reasonable.  Sometimes they are beyond what you can deliver without giving up your family, friends, and sanity.  There are times when you have to just do what you can, know that your customers will be unhappy, and deal with the consequences.