Worry Smart

The #10 Rule of Gumption, from my first book, is "Worry smart." Worry about the things you have some control over. Don't get into worrying about everything that you don't have control over, or you'll end up driving yourself crazy.

A friend of mine recently told me that one of her friends, who owns a business, is worried about what the economic times will do to his business. I didn't really get the details, but my friend indicated that the business owner seemed to be concerned about not knowing what lay ahead, and that he might end up losing his business.

You can't go down that path. What the recession (whether we're headed there, or already there) holds is not under our control. What we do to try to retain our customer base, to keep delivering value and quality, to keep us in the forefront of their minds, etc. are things we have some control over. And those things are the things we should spend our energies on, not on worrying about what unknown the recession might hold.

Much easier said than done, I know, but that's what we need to do. Worry smart, and you'll negotiate the twists and turns of the Road to Gumption cautiously, rather than being so worried you just pull over, wait, and do nothing. Keep your eyes on the Road!

A Long Detour from the Road

How time flies. I have no excuses, other than the reminder that the Road to Gumption has many twists, turns, and unexpected layovers. My spring, summer, and beginning of fall just plain got away from me. During that time I finished and released my latest book (www.LetItFlyBook.com), continued to tend to the intricacies of a family matter, and observed the first anniversary of my mother's passing.

And since my last posting, a tremendous amount of change has occurred in the financial markets and the corporate scene, causing thousands of people to focus on or find their Roads to Gumption. More in my next post. Until then, keep your eyes on the Road!

1,000 Emails a Day?

When a BlackBerry service outage occurred recently, I read a quote in a news article from a user who was annoyed at the loss of service. This user said he was tremendously inconvenienced by the outage, since he receives almost 1,000 emails each day. He said that makes it difficult enough to keep up, but with no service, even more so. He was going to ask his employer to get him a Treo as a backup device.

I don't know if that number was a misprint or not, but if it wasn't, one thousand emails a day is mind-boggling. Something is amiss if one person alone has to handle a thousand emails each day. Let's do some quick math. Even if he spent on average only 30 seconds reading each email, that would equate to more than 8 straight hours of reading. And that doesn't include replies, meetings, phone calls, restroom breaks, or lunch. How could anyone possibly do that each and every day?

Sounds like it might be time for another person to journey down the Road to Gumption!

90 Percent (!) Want More Balance

In a recent national survey commissioned by ConAgra Foods, 90 percent of Americans want to have a more balanced life, but only 21 percent of them think it's possible. Of the people who make New Year's resolutions, 60 percent will break those resolutions in the first 3 months of the new year.

A good percentage of those resolutions relate to diet and losing weight, and ConAgra is using this data to promote some new health and wellness initiatives. But I find the numbers compelling but not surprising, that such a high percentage desire change, but such a low percentage believe that it's achievable.

If only more people were to practice The 5 P's of Change ... prepare, plan, pursue, persevere, and positive. Of course, I'm biased because that's been my Road to Gumption for embracing change.

Happy New Year! And keep your eyes on the Road ... to Gumption.