- Stop needless struggling…
- Solve persistent problems…
- Triumph over adversity…
- Boost your performance…
- Fast-forward your success…
- Make Your Life A Masterpiece…
- And MORE!
Today we’re switching gears (temporarily)…
You see, yesterday something happened to me…
More important: telling you about it can…
Radically Improve Your Life
Here’s the story…
I’ve been struggling with a single issue in my business for eons…
Now – don’t go jumping to conclusions… it’s nothing serious… in fact in the grand scheme of things it’s quite insignificant.
But it’s lingered longer than it should.
Kind of like an annoying jingle you can’t get out of your head.
Nonetheless yesterday I finally got…
Fed Up!
So… I took action.
I called one of my mentors and asked if we could meet. I felt he’d know how to solve it once and for all.
Anyhow, my day ended yesterday at 4pm. But he couldn’t meet till 7:30pm.
With time to kill I went to the cigar bar and decided to do a root-cause analysis on this persistently persnickety problem.
OK, before we go any further – I’d like you to…
Imagine This..
You’re in your house. You’ve got your car keys in your hand. The lights go out… power failure.
You can’t see a thing. You stumble around in your living room, and… you drop your keys.
You look around for a moment and you realize you’re never going to find them in the dark.
But you look outside and you notice the streetlights are on.
So, in your mind, a light bulb goes off. You think…
“Hmmm… I’m not going to sit around here in the dark and grope around, looking for my keys when there’s a light on outside. I’m going to go out there… under the streetlight… and I’m going to look for my keys.”
Now don’t laugh… this makes a lot more sense than you might realize …
OK, so you’re out there… you’re groping around… and you’re looking for your keys.
And you’re looking and looking and your neighbor comes along and asks, “What happened?”
You say “Well…um… I dropped my keys.”
He replies “Oh, I’ll help you look for them.”
Now the two of you are down on your knees… looking for your keys… and looking…
Finally, he says to you “Um… where did you drop your keys?”
You say “Well, um, I dropped them in the house.”
Perplexed… He says “You mean to tell me that you dropped your keys in the house and your looking for them out here in the street… that doesn’t make any sense!”
You respond “Well, it doesn’t make any sense to grope around in the dark, when there’s light out here.”
Ridiculous? Yes.
Are you guilty of thinking this way? Probably… and…
More Often Than You Realize
Think about it: Isn’t that exactly what we do when we have a problem, a difficulty, a struggle?
When we (finally) decide to fix it, we tend to look outside for the solution.
Now, don’t get me wrong – there’s value in getting outside opinions, solutions, and strategies. Heck, I try to provide that to you every time I write a blog post.
But shouldn’t we first look inside? Inside our business… Inside ourselves… Inside our minds?
Hold that thought. Now let’s go back to me at the cigar bar. Remember… I’m doing a root-cause analysis to kill time before my mentor arrives.
Can you guess what happens next?
If you guessed – in the 3½ hours I had on my hands… I figured out I was the cause of the problem… and there was a simple solution to it after all…
You’re Right!
So, what’s all this have to do with you?
And how does all this deliver on the bullets this post started with?
Well, I made this graphic to sum it all up for you…
Today – pick a problem…it could be personal or professional… any type will do. But this time, instead of seeking a solution outside (books, blogs, friends, mentors, etc…) spend an hour or two thinking things through.
How could you be the cause of it?
What would you do if your life depended on solving it today and you couldn’t ask anyone for advice?
More often than not – you’ll find your answer.
When my mentor finally arrived – I told him the problem… I told him what I had figured out – the cause and the solution… And he said “I couldn’t agree with you more.”
And we spent the rest of the night swapping stories.
Alright, that’s all I’ve got for today.
See you tomorrow.
BEFORE YOU GO… TELL ME IF YOU AGREE WITH ME… AND WHAT YOU THINK.
To higher profits and beyond,
Rich