Cream Cheese Sandwich? Not Again!
Step back and decide what you really want for your business
A construction worker complains every time he opens his lunch pail: “Cream cheese sandwich? Not again!”
This goes on for days and weeks. Finally, his co-worker says, “Why don’t you ask your wife to make something different for you?”
To this, he replies, “I’m not married. I make my own sandwiches!”
It is easy to think the dissatisfied construction worker should just decide what he wants, buy different groceries, and make a lunch he enjoys.
Decide, plan, and then act!
But we don’t know his situation, do we? There could be other factors at play in his decision of what type of sandwich to make. Maybe he is on a really tight budget, and his son works for a cream cheese company, so he gets it for free. Or maybe he is suffering from depression and doesn’t have the bandwidth to make changes.
Whatever our worker’s situation, clearly he doesn’t see options or he would change his situation.
Where am I going with this?
Where in your business is a similar situation playing out? What would it take for you to pause and decide what you really want? Could you step back from the blur of your day-to-day tasks and evaluate what you’re doing?
That “step back and evaluate” process is the first step in business planning, and it’s an essential piece to business success. You have to take a good look at what you are doing to see whether you’re going to get where you want to go.
Fortunately, a major investment of time and money is not needed to shift your situation. An hour a week reflecting on your situation, in time, can make a huge difference. Step back from your day-to-day busy-ness, find a calm place, and then ask yourself:
1. What is my “cream cheese sandwich” situation? What am I putting up with that I really don’t like?
This is the heart of the situation. Make a list of everything in your business that is not to your liking. Once everything is written down, rate each item from 1 to 5, with 1 being “a minor irritation” and 5 being “a daily annoyance.”
Now, look over your list and identify one item with a rating of 4 or 5. Just one. You can come back to the others later.
2. How do I want it to be different?
As you reflect on the item selected above, write down everything you can think of that would change the situation. Don’t worry if your ideas are possible. Just write them down.
Allow yourself to step outside your life constraints for a short time and imagine new ideas.
3. What am I going to do about it?
Look over your lists of possible solutions and see which one is feasible. Maybe for now, it can be as simple as no longer complaining about your situation.
For example, our construction worker above might say, “I’m thinking about fixing something different for my lunch.”
Although it seems like a small change, it really is significant because it shifts you from being reactive to being proactive. It puts you at choice.
Intentionally choosing your next steps is the core of business planning, one of the most important skills an owner can develop.
Not everyone appreciates or enjoys this process. Some people find it uncomfortable: it requires self-reflection, a dose of personal responsibility, and experimenting with different patterns of behavior.
Taking an hour a week to reflect on what is working and not working in your business, and over time, will move you toward the future you’ve envisioned.
Roberta Ryan is a business coach who helps “right-brain” professionals recognize their value, make their vision real and sustain a business that serves the greater community. To find out more, please visit www.RobertaRyan.com