I recently had one of those days where I felt like I had been sucked into a black hole and never, never get out again. However, once I got out of it and gritted my teeth to the bumps, I realized I’d been hit with an AFGO: Another Flippin’ Growth Opportunity.

On the surface, the activity didn’t seem like much: meeting a potential strategic ally in downtown Minneapolis. Unfortunately, my brain turns to mush every time I get close to the city center, and I almost inevitably get lost. Having addresses, not having addresses, it doesn’t matter. I get lost. This particular day was no exception.

Here is a brief summary of the reasons why my blood pressure was temporarily through the roof:

• I was so focused on finishing my PowerPoint slides for an important presentation that I lost track of time. I finished at the time I intended to leave for my date, which would have been nice. Yes I had showered and dressed before
• me thought I had carefully read the instructions, when in fact I skimmed through them and added a few assumptions.
• the part in those directions that told me “turn right and go five blocks” would have worked just fine Yes I hadn’t gotten distracted and lost count of how many blocks I had already walked
• once I finally parked in the parking lot (not the one with directions, but close) I was so exhausted I didn’t even think to notice what level I parked on; in fact, he had no idea if he had been driving down to the garage or up.

With this combination of careless behaviors, it’s no wonder the situation got so out of hand that I felt like my head was going to explode.

• I got into the city center on time, then spent 15 minutes driving because I didn’t carefully follow directions.
• my lunch companion was friendly and we had a useful conversation; we just had to do it at high speed as she was on a finite lunch break at her corporate job
• I managed to get back to the correct parking ramp, and then proceeded to do an unscheduled workout by having to walk through each level to find my car (10 levels + parking spot on level 10 = 45 minutes of spontaneous activity). exercise)

Beyond the frustration of not getting where I wanted to go quickly and efficiently, I’ve also gone crazy because I keep thinking I’ve already learned these lessons. Apparently that’s just wishful thinking on my part; yes i d Really taken seriously, I would not continue to have opportunities to (re)learn them once again. So for the sake of shortening its learning curve, I share an encore presentation of the following lessons.

Stay focused. I only had to count five streets, which, even on a bad day, I can do. my current challenge is SQUIRREL!!! stay focused on the task at hand and refuse to be distracted by shiny objects of any kind.

Pay attention to what is happening around you. While this may sound contradictory to Lesson #1, it really isn’t. You can be aware of what is happening in the periphery while it remains in focus in its main objective; it is primarily a matter of choosing where you will put most of your attention. If only I had done this I would have taken the elevator to my correct level and got to my car quickly and easily.

Be careful about assuming you already “know” something important. When I read the instructions, they clearly stated that the garage I wanted was between blocks five and six. However, when I read “turn right at the garage”, I assumed they meant “turn right at the fifth block”. There was no reason for me to assume that; I just got careless and did it, hence the unplanned Minneapolis scenic drive.

Once I got back to my office and settled down with some chocolate, I realized that I might as well risk derailing my business-building efforts by ignoring these lessons. How many times have I lost (or just chosen to surrender) my approach? How often do I put off an important but not urgent task to work on something that is in plain view and easier to do, but It is not have the same future impact on my business? And how often do I act on assumptions or what I “know”, only to find out later that my actions were based on faulty or incomplete premises?

So I’m going to be more strict about challenging myself with questions like these, and I encourage you to do the same:

• Do I know which task is going to have the biggest impact on my business right now?
• am i concentrating on only that task until it is complete? Or am I being seduced by easy but basically meaningless activities?
• Have I taken my focused attention to such an extreme that I now have tunnel vision? Am I missing out on potential opportunities or threats because I am also very concentrated?
• Have I become complacent about knowing the right way to do the right things? What have I done lately to confirm that my high-priority activities are indeed the ones most likely to produce the results I want?

They say confession is good for the soul. Here’s hoping that this confession of my self-defeating behaviors will shorten your learning curve.