Taking time to think
There are real moments in your life where you take time to think about where you are. How you got there and where you want to go. These are usually life changing moments: births, marriages and deaths. Hopefully these moments are not filled with “if only we….”. Ideally, they are more filled with ” we are glad we…”
The same happens in our business lives. Key moments here could be setting up a new business, bringing new people into the business, exiting the business. Ideally, in these cases the change is your choice, not someone else’. So, you are left with ” I am glad we…” instead of ” if only we…”.
Allow us to take time to explain how you can turn your ‘if only we,’ into ‘I am glad we did.’
Why bother?
There is a great philosopher who truly understood life, he goes by the name of Winnie the Pooh. He summed up life’s journey in two sentences: “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am, may be lost.”. We can be very busy running a business and know exactly what we have to do today but we may have no idea where these actions will take us. We may have started with a vision and plan for our business. Over time we may just have let that vision drift so far from where we started that the business is now lost. It may no longer be the thing we dreamt it would be…
Taking time to think allows us to stop and look round, to check that we are still running the business that we want to. Doing this regularly means that we can react to the outside world and build our ‘glad we did ‘ moments.
How to think constructively
Constructive thinking sense checks where your business is. It checks that you are still going in the direction you choose. By thinking about where your business is going you start to control the direction of your business.
The best question to ask is ‘why’. The best way to ask why is like a toddler. Repeat why until you understand what is going on.
The worst way to answer is like a tired parent. Do not just answer ‘because that’s the way it is’. To answer ‘because’ will leave you knowing where you are but where you are, will be lost.
It is so easy to think about your business and allow yourself excuses that it is just the way it is. A really good habit is to start to think about why your business is where it is and how you are going to get it to where you want it to be. This creates more ‘glad we did‘ moments and stops the ‘if only we did’.
We know, we have just done this as part of redeveloping our website.
New Website and room to think.
We work with businesses all the time that are deliberately embracing the change in their business. So often, we bombard them with the ‘why’ incisive questions, and we often feel the pain until they get to the ‘ah ha moment’. All the time, we thought we emphasized with their pain. Apologies, we had forgotten how hard it can be on the receiving end!
We are delighted to have a new website designed and delivered by the brilliant Sparrow Digital Team.
This gave us the brilliant opportunity to work on the ‘we are glad we did’ moments. We talked to previous clients and learned the impact creating thinking spaces had had on their business. Then we stood in the shoes of people new to us and worked on our message to them. Working with the positive team at Sparrow Digital we created a clean navigable website. We are glad we took the time to think and the time to refresh our website.
We have now got a website that lets you know what we can do for you. Have a look and let us know what you think.
So, create yourself a thinking room
Go on give yourself space to ask yourself why? and create your own ‘glad we did‘ moments.
And if you need help getting into that habit, give us a shout. Our details are on the new website: Thomas Jardine & Co
