I Want You to Feel Really, Really Good

I feel good. I mean I feel really good. Better than I’ve felt in a long time. I’ve made some big decisions lately and have made some gigantic and scary changes as a result. Today, I feel good. I am over the hump. I’m settling in.

Too often when we are in business for ourselves we have to make reactive instead of proactive decisions. We react on the spot to things that affect our day to day business. A key employee out sick or with an emergency causes you to make reactionary changes to your plans. An important customer has last minute demands that cause you to again make reactionary changes to possibly not only your personal or professional plans but to your employee plans and more seriously to your bank account plans. You write reactionary checks, have reactionary conversations that you might not have been ready for and you make reactionary decisions that in hindsight were not the best for your business’ long term health.

I am big on the 24 hour rule especially when I shop. There have been many times My Lia and I were shopping and saw something that we just had to have. Instant retail therapy gratification. Nine and a half times out of ten when we apply the 24 hour, the ‘if we still want it we can come back and get it tomorrow rule’, we don’t go back and get whatever the item was. We even have forgotten what we found so awesome about the item the very next day. We have saved countless dollars with the 24 hour rule. (Just look in your closet and I dare you to tell me there isn’t anything hanging in there that you should have applied the 24 hour rule to.)

What if we all applied the 24 hour rule to our business practices? Instead of blowing up at the employee, we waited 24 hours so we could address the issue without emotion. Instead of jumping on an opportunity to make a business change that at first glance looks appetizing, what if you waited just 24 hours and really thought through the pros and cons. What if you gave yourself the gift of a day to look before you jumped at a chance that seems, of course, too good to be true? Any great opportunity that is meant to be will be happy to hear you say, “May I please have 24 hours think this through and I’ll get back to you by ‘x’ time tomorrow?”

I gave myself 24 hours times a month or two and three before I made my recent large decisions and I am proud of myself for giving my decisions the time to percolate. I challenge you to give your decisions the time to assimilate and fester if need be before you respond and react. Allow yourself, as the entrepreneur, the responsible opportunity to make proactive instead of reactive decisions. You will be amazed at the positive change you will make to the process of running your business.

I want you to feel good. Really, really good.