Last week’s message might have come off a little harsh, and while it was intended that way, you might have guessed that I was a little frustrated. Maybe too much, but hopefully you got that the spirit of the message was one of contribution.
I was not mad at any of the people, I was not making them wrong, and they are not “bad” people. WE ALL are faced with moments each and every day where we have to make decisions that have serious downstream effects.
Today I want to talk about the moments, or the moment when we have to make a decision. Not just a choice, a decision. Decide ends in “-cide”, which is to ‘kill off’, or the act of killing. Other words that end in -cide: homicide, suicide, pesticide, and genocide. When we make a decision, we are killing off our other options.
When it’s time to pick up the phone, or go to the doors, or say yes to something, it’s that moment. What do we decide to do?
Let me share an example. This is one I’ve shared before, but it bears repeating. When I was a young teenager, my dad and I used to ski Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevadas. At the top of Mammoth is a run called The Cornice. It was called that because the wind constantly whipped up a big cornice lip, hence the name (now they mostly groom the lip off).
Every time my dad and I skied that run (and we did it often), we would ski up to the edge and stop. We are both terrified of heights (the ride up to the top on Chair 23 still frightens me), but my dad would get to the edge and just stare at it for 5 to 10 minutes. Nothing was worse than standing at the top and agonizing about going into the run, so I would find a line and jump in.
When I started door knocking 25 years later, it was a similar feeling. I knew I needed to go, and I never felt like starting. However, the moment I “jumped in” - got out of the car and started knocking, everything always worked out.
Whatever you are facing, you can do it. There’s nothing inherently risky, at least physically, about what you need to do in your business. All the “risk” is a made-up story in your head.
At the top of Cornice, that wasn’t necessarily the case. One time, I jumped into Cornice, made one turn, came over a mogul, and hit a sheet of ice. My skis went out from under me, and I slid the whole way down. I lost my skis, my poles, and thankfully was far enough away from the rock croppings. It was what we called a “slider”.
I still hesitate a moment when I am on a steep ski run. Truth be told, now that I am in my 50s, I don’t often ski too many steep, slick runs where I could slide all the way down. Yet, I am present to what I am telling myself. I can feel the urge to pull back, play it safe. I don't care as much about going all out when skiing...I do care about how I show up in the other areas of my life.
Last week’s message was about moments where I saw people faced with key moments to “jump in” - and instead they turned around and went the other way. Nothing wrong with taking the “cat” track down...but there’s no reward there.
PLEASE NOTE: The market is almost certainly going to get incredibly harder for many of us. There will be many moments when you need to jump in, and you will be faced with that split second when you must make a decision.
My plea is that you make the decisions that don’t kill off your growth and success.
