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Welcome to The Water Trough where we can't make you drink, but we will make you think. My name is Ed Drozda, Small Business Doctor, and I'm really excited you chose to join me here as we discuss topics that are important for small business folks just like you. If you're looking for ideas, inspiration, and possibility, you've come to the right place. Join us as we take steps to help you create the healthy business that you've all. Always wanted.

Ed Drozda: 0:45

Welcome back to The Water Trough, this is Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor. Today I find myself in a place that I've been before. I'm a little short on ideas. Typically I sit down to do my podcast and things flow spontaneously. I don't really need much in the way of prompting, but over the course of the last several days, I found myself struggling to make content happen. You know, the idea of this Water Trough thing is to inspire people to think, to give people things to consider and ideally to walk away with something of value that will trigger something in them that may not have been triggered without having heard the content in these podcasts. But of course when the creator who's trying to inspire finds himself in a position of lacking inspiration it's kind of difficult to imagine I'm doing the job that I set out to do. So I went back and I was looking over some previous posts and I came across one that I had done a while back about accepting and moving on. And one of the things that comes to mind about acceptance and moving on is just this, that we find ourselves in a position where that which we expect for ourselves does not occur. That which we think comes naturally is for at least some point in time not available to us. So I went back and I'm retooling this old podcast. I'm playing with it, picking it apart and representing it, if you will. Now it might sound like a cop out that I'm doing that because fresh content is my goal. But I think because I find myself in this position, it's important to reflect upon that lack of creativity, that lack of inspiration. I'm gonna call this the self-reflection episode because that's what I did when I created it the first time, and that's exactly what I'm bringing today. I hope you'll find it of interest. I have a feeling that just about anybody can relate to this at some level. So here we go. For those of us who are engaged in business it's really easy to fall out of line with our expectations. That's just the way it is. Things happen, things change, we have to manage things as they come along. We have to keep in mind the bigger picture and where these little events fall into place and how they impact the bigger picture. But rather than spending time dwelling on the fact that we haven't met the stated expectation, it'd be best if we can embrace the fact that interruptions happen, that priorities change, that control is not absolute, and that this is okay. Because when we are spending our time engaged in the failure to meet a certain expectation we're depriving ourselves of our capability to function effectively. It's not easy for me to do this, but I'm giving myself permission of not meeting objectives. I'm not talking about objectives that are paramount. There are certain things for which priority is established and there's no exception to those things. Whether it be the content or the timing in which they're done. But in many cases, I for one, find myself beating myself up over the fact that I did not meet a certain expectation, and when I reflect upon it, I realized that the expectation that I had, while worthy, does not warrant my self pity. I find that easy to do. But there is something to be said for the comfort of acknowledging that these things do happen, and rather than trying to make up for it, more importantly, to live in the moment and to make the most out of what's happening at that time. Once again, I'm not suggesting abandoning responsibility. I'm not suggesting that it's appropriate to simply let things go, forgive ourselves, and say, oh, that's fine. What I'm saying is that they do happen and that because they happen, it is appropriate, it is helpful if we can simply accept the fact that they happen. We certainly can benefit from the fact that in accepting it we're more apt to move on quickly and effectively. This is particularly important in business, where we have a significant lack of control over many factors. Things like supply chain, employee punctuality and performance, market factors, sales things of that sort. And there's only so much we can do to mitigate that loss of control. If we were to honestly appraise all of the things of which we have no control, and if we determined that we've spent time feeling poorly because of it, we're certainly going to find ourselves being far less productive and effective than we intended to be. That is to say, we're putting our energy in a place where it really is not going to serve us well. As I look back over what I've said up until now. It sounds so straightforward, so easy. It's not rocket science. And yet it is very difficult to accept the fact that we don't have control. It's very difficult to acknowledge that our best made plans don't always come true. It's awkward to admit that we couldn't achieve that which we expected to. And in this day and age, let's face it everybody's talking about excelling at this and succeeding at that and being all these amazing things. We're setting ourselves up to believe that we have that absolute perfection opportunity. I'd say, practically speaking, all of us feel somewhat of a sense of shame about what we can and cannot accomplish. So I'm making a commitment to myself to work on this. I've thought about it often throughout my life, and I know as I did before, I'll have a tough time. But I'm going to try once again to acknowledge the fact that things happen. I'm going to try to embrace the notion of living more in the moment rather than letting the outcome of the past dictate what is going to happen next. I encourage you to give it some thought. Ask yourself this. Are you finding yourself ill at ease because things did not get done? Did you have that podcast for the last three weeks that you didn't get to? Are you sitting here today recording it and going boy, I should have done better? I know I could have done better. Or are you self-aware enough and appreciative enough of your abilities and your lack of control over all things that you can dismiss this and say, that's fine? And then having moved along like that. You effectively get up and go forward? Naturally, I hope you're in the latter camp. And I hope that at some point I will be too. I think that'll be fantastic. A reminder that if you are interested in being a guest on my podcast, I would love to have you join me here. My contact information is available in the episode notes. And by all means, please, if you like what you've heard I ask you to share it with your colleagues and friends. I appreciate the information getting out there to people. I do use this as a means of getting myself in front of people and so your efforts on my behalf will be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, this is Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor and here at The Water Trough, I want to wish you a healthy business.