Reaching down and turning the key off for the final time of the week, you sit back in the seat, take a few seconds to relax, embrace the silence that now engulfs you and think, “Wow, what a crazy week,” as it flashes through your head at warp speed. Your mind tries to send you back to get the computer, shut down the lights and head into the office ... but the body has more pull and keeps you planted.
It is in this brief moment that everything seems distant and calm, so you selfishly remain motionless and try to collect your thoughts. Why do I feel some of you may have just chuckled or made a face at the phrase “your thoughts?”
Is it written somewhere that if you run your own business there is no longer time for your own thoughts? Are we really that much too busy; is it so important to be focused on everything else all the time?
Feeling dizzy?
Does it ever feel that the world is spinning faster now then it used to?
Ever have those days that just the sound of the cellphone ringing seems like you are putting a 45-lbs. backpack on top of everything else you’re carrying? Like those days when you are trying to make up time, the cellphone has started a ring fest (almost like it texted your entire contact list with the message “please call me right away”), all while you’re trying to finish up with a couple customers ... and then the door opens and in comes Joe Public carrying a pile of broken tools and complaining of no service from anybody in 37 years, 5 months and 4 days (somehow making all of that your problem) and giving an entire history of how each tool broke and when!
Things are starting to become fuzzy now.
Add to the mix all of the stuff that takes place behind the scenes that is also rolling around in your head, inventory to be checked in, the broken box to be packaged up, repairs coming and going, bills to pay, paperwork to stay on top of. Aaarrrggghhh.
Yup. Things get just a little fuzzier at this point.
Our minds constantly are full of copious amounts of information; it wouldn’t surprise me to have a mobile complain of some form of vertigo from our day-to-day mental gymnastics. Vertigo can be either “a sensation of motion in which the individual’s surroundings seem to whirl dizzily,” or “A dizzy confused state of mind.”
Well, it does seem entirely possible that’s the sensation that sets in following a crazy day or week!
Avoid ‘little extras’
What is the solution to slowing things down and adding more clarity in our daily lives? One place to start is with analyzing our routines; break down where the “spinning” begins.
Let’s look first at yesterday and find out if everything that needed doing got done. Ah, lookie lookie here, a couple of unfinished items. No worries we can just slide them over to today for completion, right? Today has as much time as yesterday, so there should be plenty of time for the extra workload!
Now that today’s semi-crazy day is finished, let’s review how we did with accomplishing all of our tasks. Huh. Looks like there are a few little things that still need to be done. No worries, there’s always tomorrow!
Did anyone pick up on the key words that seem ... not so key?
It is often the little items that get put on the back burner or carried over to tomorrow (sometimes repeatedly) that start to weigh on the mind (always there like a nagging voice). We know it has to be done, but the desire isn’t there alongside all of the other priority items.
Remember that a single leaf falling from one tree isn’t much to take care of; it is when the whole tree has dropped its foliage that there is a lot of extra work.
Could it be that all of the little extra items are clouding our vision and making the world spin faster? Adding those little extra items is all that it takes to change our days and our state of mind.
Mental health is undoubtedly the most important asset our businesses have; keeping a sound mind is key!
Remember the article about having a word or memory to snap our minds “back” during our off time. That word or memory is a form of a handrail or seat—when everything is getting a little crazy grab that rail or seat to control the spin. Analyze where you are, your role in your business and your life and prioritize. Then proceed with the same determination as Day One on the job and things should become clearer.
