I agree with Socrates’ famous lines,
The unexamined life is not worth living.
After all, simply continuing to repeat mistakes and not recognizing the opportunities to make something different happen is tragic, at best.
You have likely seen the ebb and flow of your business cycles, relationships and even cash flow. There are market moods, natural interactions and social psychology forces continually at work around you.
While especially true in a connected economy, we are not in control. We are part of a greater cycle and interplay with people.
If you are continually in despair or surprised by the down cycles, then how about taking a step back and look for the patterns? Is there a predictability in your business? Can you anticipate how your customers and marketplace behaves?
A better strategy instead of pushing harder in the down cycles is to use those times for activities that have more impact.
There’s a time to plan and a time to work.
Based on business cycles, how about spending more of your time aligning where you put your focus. Much like farmers sowed and reaped in season, you can do likewise in your endeavors. When it’s not time to reap, spend a lot of time sowing.
Pull out a sheet of paper. Think about wild ideas.
Or schedule out the next six months of what is important and break it down to weekly activities that will get you to the milestone. Put it in your calendar and do those priorities first in each week.
Cycles can be a real gift if you use them for strategy and perspective and then take action with the right timing. It’s not only a productive use of your time, but you can manage your energy, emotions and direction by stepping back and appreciating the natural cycles of your business.
What cycle are you in? Can you be more strategic with how you apply your attention and resources?
Please update email to:
sjordan@e360power.com
Thanks.
SJ
Good Stuff – made me think of this
Ecclesiastes 1There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. 9What do workers gain from their toil? 10I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yeta no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
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Joe Law – Owner/Founder 907.338.1847 • sundogmedia.com Bright People, Brilliant Design
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” – Mark Twain
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