As I was putting my Day-Timer calendars away for the previous year I noticed something startling. I had stopped doing something several months ago without even being aware of it. I certainly had not intended to stop doing it. Not only that, but the activity that I had accidentally stopped doing had been a big part of the reason why things were going so smoothly several months ago. As I made plans to immediately begin that activity I realized that unplugging from what is working is something that we all face, but often without even recognizing it. How can we avoid unplugging from what is working for us?
Don’t Unplug from What’s Working
We are creatures of habit. We develop a habit of doing something and then we do it on “autopilot” until something comes along to disrupt our routine in some way. When the disruption to our routine is big enough, our “autopilot” disengages. This is precisely how and when our carefully developed habits are at risk of being abandoned without our even knowing it.
Identify what’s working
Start by identifying what is working well in your business and the why behind it. This is about raising your consciousness around where your results are coming from. Taking time to recognize what is working is the first step in preventing yourself from accidentally unplugging from it later.
Identify what’s not working
Next, begin identifying what is not working well in your business. An understanding of the reason why things aren’t working is much more powerful than just knowing something is broken. When you know that something isn’t working, you just know that you need to fix it. It is the knowing why something isn’t working that enables you to know specifically how to fix the situation.
Review the past
Take some time to review the past year or more to identify what you previously did and aren’t doing now, and consider if you should start doing it again. Reviewing the past periodically is essential to ensure that you haven’t accidentally stopped doing something that was working well for you. Relying on calendar notes, or notes in a journal, is a great way to see exactly what you were doing that you aren’t now. (I’ve fallen in love with a program called The Journal .) Using physical (or digital) records for reference is much more reliable and accurate than simply relying on your memory to let you know what you accidentally stopped doing months ago.
When something is working well for you, the last thing you want to do is unplug from it and quit. However, this is something that we all do at times when we face various disruptive situations. Avoiding unplugging is about raising our awareness about what we’re doing now and what we’ve stopped doing. Plugging back in to what was working will get you and your business back on track!
