Let me set the stage for you.
It was 5:00 pm on a Saturday evening, during a long weekend. We had a full Sunday planned with a birthday party we were hosting on Monday. My 6 year old was tired from a long week of good things without enough sleep.
Our basement, which serves as a play area, was a DISASTER. Like, destroyed in the way that only young kids and drunk frat boys can accomplish. Couch cushions and toys everywhere. Snack wrappers, broken toys, the whole 9 yards.
I turned on a TV show and asked her to please pick up while I did a little work and made dinner. We just couldn't leave all the projects for the following two days.
Over the next hour I tried to keep her three year old sister from hurting herself and completely melting down while sending a few invoices, then I moved to cleaning the kitchen. I reminded her every 10 minutes to clean up. A couple times I went down and even helped for 10 seconds, giving her more direction so it didn't seem so overwhelming. Very little progress was made.
About 6, I started dinner, warning her she wasn't eating until it was clean and it was her favorite: breakfast for dinner. This is when the hysterics began.
6:15ish, I went down and turned off the TV. No progress had been made. Cue hysterics in full force.
6:30 her sister and I sit down to eat. More crying.
6:40, it gets quiet.
6:50, "Mom, its clean".
Sure enough it was. 100 minutes of agony, for everyone. 10 minutes of cleaning. She eats dinner, we watch a movie, life is good.
Guys. How many times is this us? In business or life? There is something that needs to be done. We fight it, procrastinate, throw a few fits and make everyone around us miserable.
What if we just did the thing and then ate our favorite dinner and watched a movie?
Next time you find yourself trapped in agony, maybe ask yourself that...what if I just did it and it was done?
Don't spend a week agonizing over how hard it's going to be to switch e-mail platforms, just do it.
Stop telling everyone how scared you are to go live. Talk to your favorite person to watch for tips, talk to them ONCE and then do it.
Stop waffling about changing supplier or working with a new book keeper. If you aren't happy, make the decision about what is best for your business and move on.
It's rarely as hard, bad or miserable as we think its going to be and even if it is, at least it is done. It's time to stop making ourselves more miserable than we have to.
Go do the hard things and live the good things!
I love watching you succeed,
Emily