Hey everybody, Charlie Hauck, President, Lead Trainer of Growth Dynamics. Welcome back. It's Fast Tip Friday again.
Hey, this is one I think I've touched on before, but for some reason it's stuck in my mind. It's a good time to bring it up again, and that is if you're driving, if you're riding a bicycle, if you're running in the trails in the woods, it's always true. At least it is for me, and I think a lot of people would agree with me that the potholes that create the most problems are the ones you don't see until you hit them.
I hate driving my car and making a turn around a corner and I don't have time to see a pothole that's going to rattle my windshield and make my teeth crack together. Potholes that come unexpectedly are brutal, and they're the ones I find that we've got to be proactively thinking about, even if they're not there. I find that when people are overly optimistic that everything's going to be great, the road is always going to be smooth, they think they've thought of absolutely everything that could go wrong. They're the ones that seem to end up with the biggest problems and the greatest disappointments when they hit the proverbial business pothole.
So I love optimism. I'm an optimist at heart in almost everything that I do, but I've learned some really hard lessons because of that perspective and the way I've lived in the past. After frankly, I got to tell you, I've got some bumps and bruises and scars from not thinking about this earlier in my life. Now I try to look at everything with an optimistic view, but I sprinkle in a heavy dose of "what if" or "what am I not thinking about" or "why isn't this as easy as I think it's going to be." I find that the more I get my eyes ahead of myself and I look down the road for any potential potholes, the better prepared I am to deal with them when they actually do show up.
When I've lived a life of "don't worry about it, it's all going to be good, nothing could go wrong," frankly, without exception, I find those things have a hiccup that I really don't want to deal with. So I encourage all of you eternal optimists out there to continue on your merry way through life, but spend some time thinking about what should I be thinking about that I don't want to think about. Where's the next pothole? Where's the next problem? Where's the unexpected uh-oh that you don't think you're ever going to run into? At least open up your mind. Don't think everything is going to be perfect just because you want to believe it will be. Have a little realism in your life and be ready for the things that are unexpected.
Pick your eyes up, look down the road and be prepared to see some things that you've got to deal with sooner rather than later. Don't let your optimism get in the way of success. The devil is in the details. Think about the devils that we don't expect to encounter. That's my advice. Practice it in life, practice it in business, and you'll find yourself better prepared when you hit those moments. Take care. Have a great weekend and a killer next week of business.