When your emotions are unstable your thinking is irrational!

I have had many conversations with clients and friends who read last week's Thursday Thoughts and knew “exactly what I was talking about!”. However, I had to remind them that there are certain times we need to check ourselves to be sure we don't make short-time decisions with long-term consequences when we feel under stress and pressure.

I once saw a 70-year-old lady dance on a table on her birthday because she was in a state of euphoria, having an extremely good time at her birthday party and nearly all of her children and grandchildren in the same room for the first time in a very long time. Afterwards, when I talked to her about it she was embarrassed and almost in a state of shock because it happened.

I have watched a client sack one of their managers that he regretted for many years to come, due to a disagreement over how they handled something and both of their emotions became so fired up that they made a decision they botched and lived to regret.

I also once had a young mum who was only a couple of years into building her business, that was going extremely well, think about closing it because at a vulnerable point in time a more senior lady said to her, “you can’t be a successful mum and business women at the same time. One will suffer and it is normally the family.” Thankfully we were able to work through this and today she is an awesome business owner employing 17 staff and is a great mum, wife, mentor and friend who is going strong in all areas. We always have to remember that “an opinion is a survey of one” and avoid taking on someone else's opinions too quickly before seeing if what they say really relates to us.

There a certain times and seasons in our life when we are more vulnerable than others to let what others say to us have a greater effect than when we would when we are in an emotionally healthy and stable state.

If you are suffering from the August Blues and Blahs, wait a little while to let your feelings settle before you make decisions you may regret. If you're feeling a loss of profit and productivity at the moment because of sickness, rising inflation, slow cashflow, rising costs, personal health, long-covid, slow recruitment, staff leaving, clients going elsewhere and so on, take a bit of time out or time off to reduce stress and rebuild the emotional tank.

Now at this point everyone normally says to me, "but wait a minute, I can't get any time off, or out of the business and now is even worse!".

When we are with flat strap with work we have no time off because we are too busy. When we are not busy we feel we are too broke when we are slow.

Where is this “freedom” I was hoping for by owning my own business? I am not even earning as much as when I was working for someone else and I am doing twice as many hours. Everything costs so much and I don’t have any money now, things are too expensive! We need to pull ourselves out of all this thinking. Stinking thinking has never helped anyone create a better life. “The future we embrace will be directly connected to the visions we carry of this future and our perceived and our perceived ability to be able to make it become a reality.”

Resilience, persistency, consistency and determination are critical ingredients to Planalife you really want to live in when you are in the doldrums. Both Success and failures in our lives bring a whole new layer of complexity into our lives. Learning how to face and deal with Success and Learning experiences are critical to a healthy life.

Rest, relaxation and renewal don’t hurt us and take time from us or make us more inefficient, it helps us to be more efficient. Returning to EUSTRESS is a constant course correction we need to be making daily because as we do, we mature, strengthen and develop habits that keep continuance for the long term. Take time out to sit on your ARSE - Accumulating Renewal Strength and Energy.

If you are having difficulty in this space, please call or email me. Don’t keep struggling alone. A problem is never solved with the same thinking that created it.

Until next week Planalife you want to live in through a Business on Purpose.

Cheers Ian