Avoid the Danger of “Could”
by Terry Brock for Business Journals
Life is full of opportunities. There always seems to be plenty of options to achieve what we want. Since you’re a Business Journal reader, I can make certain assumptions about you and be reasonably accurate.
I can reasonably assume you’re in business, take some form of ownership over what you do, and are ahead of others in that you invest the time, money and energy to develop your skills. The fact that you’re reading this says you want to gain additional knowledge and get a competitive advantage. You are intelligent and look for ways to further advance your goals.
All of that is good. However, there is a big danger facing you. Because you have many opportunities, it is easy to get distracted and lose focus. There are a lot of activities you “could” do. There are a lot of opportunities you “could” embrace. This can be dangerous.
The danger of “could” is amplified because you are smart and “could” succeed in many areas. A successful lawyer “could” also probably have been successful in many other areas. However, the successful professional in any field is one who had the mental discipline and drive to limit choices for a while (we call that college) and focus on what is most important.
Having great opportunities is a wonderful benefit of being in a today’s age of technological advancement. Today, as never before, someone with reasonable intelligence and sufficient drive and determination can accomplish more than our ancestors even dreamed possible.
But with that increased opportunity comes the increased chance of being side-tracked by wandering. This wandering and wondering what to do is good for a 12 year old who hasn’t decided yet what choice of career to pursue. Many wise psychologists and human development professionals encourage young people to explore lots of opportunities before deciding on a lifetime career. Seeing the other options can enrich their experiences and make them better at what they ultimately do.
The challenge for you and me is to focus on what needs to be done now. Yes, we continue to explore new opportunities. In our hyper-fast changing world, you can’t afford to hang onto the hot topic of a few years ago (think MySpace) and neglect new opportunities for now and the future (think SnapChat). Yet, in the midst of all that you “could” do, develop strong filters that help you make decisions.
By making filters on what is right and what is wrong for you, making decisions becomes much easier. Do the hard work of thinking. I find a pad of paper and some pens work well for me in this exercise. Other tools work well also.
Find what works best for you and embrace it. Avoid all the wonderful “coulds” that exist in your life by having tight filters. Warren Buffet is famous for his advice that we have to say no to much more than we say yes to in order to succeed.
By developing strong filters you can avoid the dangers of “could” opportunities and have the resources available with time, money, and energy to embrace what is right for you.
What do you think, my fellow Steemians and DSounders? Please leave a comment and, if you liked this, your upvote (yes, I have room for one or two more upvotes!) :-)
Thank you very much for listening here on DSound.
Terry Brock
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