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Sweating the Wrong Stuff

Guest post by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: Whatever it is - if we choose to focus on something that is known, comfortable and in our control, even as other things are crying for our attention - well, we're sweating the wrong stuff. And that's a great big Gravity No No.

Sweating the Wrong Stuff

So as most of you know, my new book Defy Gravity launches this week. It's been a crazy time, to say the least. I was chatting with a friend the other night, describing my house as a result of this launch push. It went something like this:

"Let's see - there's a pile of clean laundry in the dumbwaiter since a week ago, my dishwasher has clean dishes from 2 weeks ago (Ive been handing washing a single cup, bowl, plate, spoon and fork for that time). My desk is missing in Action, there are piles of boxes all over my office for books and workbooks and shipping things. There's a pile of dust rags on m,y saddle in the living room - not for the saddle for the furniture - not sure how that got there. Then my bedroom has piles all the way into the closet - clean laundry, dirty laundry, dry cleaning, clothes to mend, clothes for Goodwill (when did I sort those out?)..."

And so it went. For the past three weeks I've been looking at chaos all around my home - a new thing for me. You see, I'm a perfectionist. Usually my home looks like you could take a shot for any magazine ( for example, Rancher's Daily tee hee) and it would be perfect.

Lately - that has been anything but the case. I started working myself up about the chaos - telling myself I was out of control, forcing myself to get the house under control despite the list of launch things that needed doing.

That's when it hit me. I was stuck in yet another Rebel Status Quo. My safe place was to have the house neat and tidy - something I could control and see. A visible proof of my perfectionism rewarded. But does it really matter? Not really! And certainly not in the middle of launching my dream come true - my first book!

So how often do we do the same things in business? We focus on a visible demonstration of our value, our control, our success - something we can easily control, even when there are other things to be done or all heck is breaking loose. Why? Because all heck and some of the other things on our plate may be scary - so we hunker down and focus on what we know. That great new advertisement or FaceBook promotion, that slide deck for the board meeting that shows we're not in bad shape (even though we know all heck is coming). Maybe it's the weekly report for our executive team, or that presentation to that new client who we really like.

Whatever it is - if we choose to focus on something that is known, comfortable and in our control, even as other things are crying for our attention - well, we're sweating the wrong stuff. And that's a great big Gravity No No.

So - I'm focused on launching my book - and guess what - my house can wait.

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Article Tags: board meetings, control, Defy Gravity, facebook, launch, presentation, promotion, status quo, wrong stuff



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