Like I wrote during my last blog post, business has been extremely difficult over the past year and a half thanks to the hurting Canadian Dollar. But rather than wallow in the negative, I decided to try a more constructive approach. Since I’ve always been a ‘Worst Case Scenario’ kind of guy, I decided to flip that on its head. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a full-fledged optimist, but I’ve always considered worst case scenario as a way to alleviate stress. In my opinion, knowing the worst that could happen can sometimes make us realize that our current problem may not be near as dire as we first thought simply by putting everything else into perspective.
That said, I decided to apply Worst Case Scenario to the possibility of closing down my business, however, I then added one other simple but thought-provoking question: Assuming worst case scenario happened, what is the greatest and most positive thing that could come out of it?
Typically we don’t relate such a positive outcome to a negative situation, especially one that’s been keeping us up at night. However, and in my opinion, it’s a very powerful way to look a major dilemma as when the "worst possible thing” happens, it may end up directing us towards a better overall place. Or, if nothing else, that we are worrying a more than necessary. And once we can see through the fear and worry, we instantly free ourselves to focus on what's truly important and become much more productive in both our personal and professional lives.
Even though I'm not afraid of closing down my business, I still asked myself the question as closing the business had been a very real potential. And, after just a few seconds I discovered something amazing that changed my life considerably and literally overnight.
By considering what the greatest positive outcome of losing my business was, I realized that I could start to focus on what was truly important to me. But hot on the heels of that thought was,”why can't I do that now instead of waiting for a negative thing to happen?”
Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy with my life, the business I started and work on every day, and, I hadn't fallen very far from the mark. However, if I had continued on my current path of reacting to life rather than continuing to create the life that I wanted, who knows where I would have ended up.
Let me give you an example: Imagine you decide to run a 10K race. You've sent your intentions, signed up for the event and then trained diligently. Then, come race day, every forward step you take also ends up being one millimeter to the left. By the end of the race you wouldn't finish anywhere near the finish line.
After considering all of this I realized that everything I truly wanted to do with my life like travel, run and write was sort of taking a back seat to my business. Yet my business was founded on traveling and running the world! I was too focused on the negative potential of losing the business that I lost my grip on why I started the business in the first place. The way I was thinking about my business meant that every day I fought to keep my company would then push my dreams that much further away. And, I was essentially waiting for something bad to happen to allow space into my life to permit the good to happen. That’s absolutely backwards and I was blind to it!
It took me less than a minute to realize that I was missing the mark and less than 24 hours to set into motion my new intentions.
In the process I also managed to dump a lot of stress. Even though I wasn't afraid to lose my company the idea clearly produced stress. And by removing the stress I was able to think very clearly which not only allowed me to get back on track with my dreams and aspirations, but to properly focus on my business! It moved me, as an example, from being a "firefighter" and focusing on putting out problems to being an actual CEO and producing business.
The very next morning I had booked a month-long trip to Mexico and a 3 week trip to Indonesia. Within 48 hours I had sold all of my possessions (again) with the exception of whatever fit into one carry-on bag. And, within a week of that I had purchased land in Costa Rica and was holding additional tickets to the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and Mongolia...places that I have always wanted to visit but always found reasons to put off. I also surprised my mother in Canada at Christmas and yes, saved my company in the process and made it substantially stronger than it was before! And all of this during an “economic downturn”, and,in a very little time!
It's very easy to let stress and worry get to us, but try turning that on its head and see what it can do for you! Things always work out in the end, and they can work out quickly when we stay focused on what's most important.
For me, I realized again that life is amazing and what's better is that it always has been, I just needed to take a moment to get back on track and make a shift of a few millimeters!
