Do you get excited by the end goal or do you take the time to enjoy the journey.
Although I like to have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, I actually get most pleasure from the things I learn on the journey.
This was brought home to me as I tend to relax by watching something easy on TV just before bed (currently on season 4 of Stargate SG1 if you’re interested) and I’ve recently taken up crochet again to keep my hands occupied while my brain is gently slowing down.
I’ve chosen a simple pattern for a cardigan as my goal. I haven’t crocheted regularly for decades so a few days later I was about 20 rows in before realising that my tensions were all wrong and the garment would end up at least 20% too big for me. That’s assuming that it will ever be good enough for me to wear anyway.
As with business problems I went back to my primary motivation to decide what to do. My true purpose was to occupy my hands and the time already spent was a ‘sunk cost’ irrespective of my next action. The solution was obviously to start again and reuse the wool with nothing lost except time.
But that time wasn’t wasted! I had learned things from the first attempt that will make the second turn better. I have remembered how to crochet, I will watch the tension more closely and measure earlier and, if all else fails, I will have a third attempt with a smaller needle or rework the pattern to aim for a smaller size.
Business is the same. It may seem a little more important with more at stake but there’s often a simple way to rescue an apparent disaster (just ask some of my coaching clients how much better they feel after we’ve worked through a gnarly problem together) and lots of learning to be had along the way,
What’s the biggest problem in your business at the moment?