That was easy!

A colleague of mine has a large red button on her desk.  The idea is that you hit it every time you complete a task or take a difficult decision.  The reward for doing so is an electronic voice saying “that was easy!”  Now I can see the benefit of such a tool on difficult days like today when I struggled to get my adrenaline pumping; a small reward for a completed task might have been just enough.

However (and there are always “howevers” in my blogs, just in case you hadn’t noticed already) there are times that I get so wound up that I think that if I had such a button on my desk, it would get hit so hard that the pain in my hand would coincide with its complete and utter destruction.  I guess there might be some therapeutic benefit in the ironic delight I would have by shouting “now that was easy!” while on the way to casualty.

I have been over doing it recently, forcing myself into impossible deadlines by not saying ‘no’ enough. Time after time I allow myself to get sucked into fun sounding projects that I believe I can somehow squeeze in-between my other commitments.  The result is that I find myself working almost seven days a week. Consequently, my sense of fun in life, all but almost disappeared.  However this weekend I was privileged to spend some time with some really inspiring entrepreneurs and also, for once, it was not raining so I managed to find an hour to take a trip on my motorcycle (in sub zero temperatures) that punched not only some fresh air into my lungs but also some fresh thinking into my brain.

Consequently I have decided to say ‘no’ more often to new demands that encroach on my private time.  To say ‘no’ to unnecessary complexity in my business career, to say ‘no’ to anything that is not helping me focus on the things that matter:  My home life, my core business, my colleagues and clients.

Now that was easy!

Have a good week,

Harley