We Dislike Changes In Our Business Models

A Winter Evening Fire On The Stone Deck!

When the weather changes from season to season, we drag our feet to accept it.  When fall begins to arrive we notice the cooler nights and how soon the dark begins to happen earlier.  At first we are not quite ready for the change in the seasons.  We just got used to the warm weather and the bulk of summer time activities.  It took us a while to get into the swing of summer but once we got it going, we do not want it to go away.  Now it seems as though we need to get ready for another change in the season.  Each change in season means we have some things we need to get done before the season gets into full swing.  We need to close out the summer stuff and get the winter stuff ready.  That means the season of fall is the only time we can do this kind of stuff to beat the winter weather.

My wife and I have a fairly strong landscaped yard.  It is almost an acre of woodland type landscaping with paths, lights, sprinkler systems, shrubs, trees, lawn sections, waterfalls, a stream bed, ponds, decks, fire pit areas, flowers, fountains, a barbecue section, umbrellas, yard hardscapes with art pieces, tools, equipment, a very busy shed area, fencing and a vegetable garden.  For those who know what I am describing, fall is the season to get busy and wrap up some very important projects and winter maintenance preparations.  Fall is the time when we need to shift gears and button everything down for the coming winter months.  The days are shorter to make this happen.  It gets dark sooner.  The window of time gets squeezed to make this winter wrap up a more serious project of time demand.  Summer fun, summer beauty and summer activities are soon coming to an end.

Our yard design is arranged so that we do not need to experience sadness by saying goodbye to our outdoor activities.  We have installed two fire pits near some stone decks that will be the fall feature of our outdoor activities.  Our landscaping is woodland designed so that it can still be enjoyed in the dead of winter.  Some of the plants we used in the design have the ability to produce new fall and winter colors.  Our outdoor enjoyment can continue throughout the year.  In fact, I am headed to town today to re-fill the propane tank on the barbecue.  We will barbecue right through the cold season.

Mother nature is the purest form of evaluations.  When she is done with spring, she moves to summer.  When she is done with summer, she moves to fall.  When she is done with fall, in comes winter.  She makes no doubt about how she describes what is, is.  If you are not ready for the changes she delivers, so be it.  She delivers them anyhow.  It is not her problem you delayed your work.  She warns you she is coming, she comes when she wants to and she delivers what she decides to deliver.  Accept it and move on.  She does not ask for your permission to do what she wants to do.  Sometimes she can be a little bit extreme, too.  Tough beans, it is her gig..not yours.

We accept mother natures evaluations.  We accept them because there is simply nothing we can do about them.  We either get adjusted with them or suffer the consequences she will deliver if we are not prepared.  Most of the time, she warns us and gives us plenty of time to make fair adjustments to what is coming.  We play with our own preparation schedules in our own way.  She does not care if we get ready for her changes or not.  She will do her seasonal changes regardless whether we prepare properly or not.  She handles her truth of seasonal changes just exactly how she performs it every single year.  Her consistency helps us to accept this truth.  We may not like the change we see coming in the new season.  She could not give a hoot.

Business is much the same way.  There are truths about a business that cannot be denied.  We may not necessarily like some of the truths about business but we must make our proper adjustments when those truths of change arrive.  Business truths come with our without our acceptance of them.  Business truths do not need our approval to arrive.  They will come sooner or later.  They are just like the seasons of the changes we see in mother nature.  They will arrive.

Sometimes It Snows!

What type of business truths do you find the most difficult to accept?  I have a few.  I have some business truths that I would much prefer to ignore.  Unfortunately, they will not go away so ignoring them is futile.  Since they are futile to ignore, I have learned how to develop a simple series of regular habits that I use to deal with those things I would much rather not do.  I do not like the end of the summer season.  So I developed a yard that can continue to be entertaining during the fall and winter months.  I arranged the outdoors to be friendly and interesting to enjoy year around.

A business owner can do the same thing with their business model.  They can accept the truth about what portions of their business model they do not enjoy doing and learn how to convert those portions into some year around enjoyment to complete.  For example, I do not like to spend very much time doing tedious data input work on my business numbers.  In fact, I dislike it a lot.  I am good at it, but I do not like to do it.  Therefore, I arrange my business models to record only the pertinent data I need in the planning I have determined is necessary to help me 'read' how the business is doing.  Nothing else is recorded.  You would be amazed at how much useless data a business owner will think they need to record in order to perform their model well.  You do not need much.  Trim off the recording fat!  A lot of it is useless and a terrible waste of time.

This step helps me to keep my time demands at a minimum on the data and desk work I do not enjoy.  A lot of leaders believe they need a wealth of data to help them feel more secure about the decisions they make.  Hogwash.  Learn how to make better decisions more quickly, with leaner ideas driving the thoughts.  Your experience will grow and your decisions will trim out to become more useful.  Go ahead, make more mistakes, that is where your experience will grow.  I find that when I learn how to control the fears behind my decisions, my need for more data goes away.  I have worked to develop better use of the simple data I need to make most of the decisions I choose.  Learn how to get a better grip on your fears.  If a plant begins to die because it just did not do well where you wanted it to go, move it to a better place.  Do not spend two days on the Internet researching how to save it.  Look for quick information, make a decision and move it.  Do the basics.  Quit trying to do the complicated.  Trim the fat of effort and become more efficient.  You will like what you do more often when the work is not drawn out for you to succeed.  Stop worrying about it.  Make cleaner, more efficient decisions.

Design your desk area to be more artistic, too.  Add some elements that express what you like to see.  Do not make your desk environment an ugly place to go, even if you think it is an ugly place to go.  Make the best of what you do not like to see.  I do not like to see the fall arrive.  So I added some fire pits and stone sitting areas near underground electrical outlets.  That way I can go outside, crank up a crackling fire and brew a nice cup of coffee to enjoy the still, cool air as the leaves change to fall colors.  This year we added some large ceramic pots near the sitting areas.  We poured them into the ground with cement on the lower fifth of the ceramic base.  They appear to come out of the ground, anchored strong with the cement.  We added a hollow steel pipe in the center of the pot and poured the concrete around the base to hold it in place, permanently.  Now we can insert our matching umbrellas into the hollow pipes and enjoy the outdoor fires next to the sitting areas during the winter when it is snowing.  We have turned what we do not like into something that we can enjoy.

Learn how to do this kind of work in your business model.  It is able to be done.  All you need to do is find a way to create an atmosphere that accepts the seasons the way you prefer to enjoy them.  Your business model is no different.  It has some things that cannot be ignored that you do not like to do.  Create a way to enjoy how you do them.  Learn how to manage doing what you do not like to do.  Create ways to make it more enjoyable to attend to the things that are not as high on your preference list.  You can do it.  All you need to do is manage your fears better and allow yourself to become more creative.

We dislike changes in our business models.  We are faced with them every single day.  They sometimes dominate how we feel about what we are trying to do.  Since that truth is real, try to overcome it with some very enjoyable working patterns.  Create an environment that allows you to enjoy how you do the things you do not like to do.  Personalize how you work your business responsibilities, including the ones you do not like to do.  Winter seasons can be a real drag if you do not like them.  Turn them into something you like to do.  Crank up a nice fire in the fire pit, open up the side umbrella when it is snowing to keep you dry and brew up a really nice cup of coffee while you and your wife take in the beauty of the winter wonderland.  Maybe some music would be nice?  By the way, make sure you do not talk about the 'big five.'  This is a cardinal rule.  You are not permitted to talk with your wife during these moments about the 'big five' subjects.  The 'big five' subjects are off limits.  The 'big five' are: family, work, money, home and neighbors!  You are not allowed to talk about anything related to these subjects.

Good luck with that one.

Until next time...