Staying motivated to be your best day after day can be a challenge. When you are, you’re REALLY good. People rely on you, consult with you and appreciate you. So the question is this: how do you maintain a level of consistency of high performance?

There may be no better way than to understand the importance of what you do. A great illustration you’ve probably heard before is worth repeating. Following The Great Fire of London in 1666, architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is reported that he visited the site unannounced and asked a stone mason what he was doing. “Cutting a piece of stone” was the response. He asked another and heard, “I’m earning five shillings twopence a day.” Wren asked another worker and heard, “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren build a beautiful cathedral.” The third worker understood that his work was more than just performing his craft or earning a living. He viewed his efforts as helping to create something great.

How easy it is to lose sight of the importance of your work. If you don’t believe your clients do anything important and meaningful, then your work for them will become rote and uninspired. There is little need to go the extra mile because it won’t really matter anyway. And you won’t put forth any discretionary effort to find answers and solve problems.

Before today is over, select a couple of your clients that do amazing things and connect your work as contributing to their success. Then identify a couple of clients that you don’t know what they aspire to accomplish and determine to find out. After all, you can’t serve them well if you don’t know what they do.