Many of us can only see patterns in our lives and in our work when we stand still long enough to look past the surface and see what’s been happening underneath. I don’t mean look at our business revenues (we’re always doing that), nor our success at losing weight (another popular metric), but our approach and our attitude toward the complex moving parts of our lives.
It takes a lot to make me stop and look around, but some life changes slowed me down enough to look around.
One of the first things I noticed during this time is that I have a long-standing habit of looking for “Silver Bullets” (aka magic) in the form of a person, an experience, a business partner, or a new idea.
Basically I have always been on the lookout for something that would make a big difference in my ability to succeed in business and in life. That doesn’t mean I sat around and twiddled my thumbs. Working hard has always been deep in my DNA, but I still had the sense that there was something outside myself that was “the answer.”
Leaving the corporate world and starting a business back in 1996 was a Silver Cannonball – bigger than a Silver Bullet but still not large enough to create the life shift I was looking for. And there were other Silver Bullets along the way – a business partner who turned out to be a mistake; a training program full of new ideas that inspired – then disappointed. A book that got me all pumped up about new approaches – then slipped to the back of the bookshelf with those that went before.
Lucky for me, I’ve learned to ask myself how I can really know if the latest bright shiny object or experience or person on the horizon will be the thing that works a miracle.
Between now and year end, my goal is to look both inside myself and outside – not for a Silver Bullet – but for a path that makes sense to me. And reminded me that spending 12 hours at the computer is neither a business nor a life – and something has to change.
I hope that friends and readers will come with me over the next few weeks as I try to discover what that new path looks like and where it leads. I don’t want to simply push the same old pieces around on the chess board (with a new business plan or a new marketing plan). Been there, done that. This time I want to change the game.
If you’ve been on this journey too, please feel free to leave a comment.
Getting the Message Right 