"Keep on Doing What You are Doing....

But only if it's working for you"... I love that saying, keep on doing what you are doing, but only if it's working well for you. How many people have you met over the years that just seem to have the same things happen to them over and over again? Is it just Karma? Is it fate? Or can it be that they too are stuck on a path that creates a certain outcome, over and over again?

Years ago I had a friend that was always in dire straights and it was one thing after the next. Sometimes it was money related, sometimes it was boyfriend related, other times it was family related. After awhile, I could see her actions and I knew what the outcome would be. I could predict what would happen and most of the time it was like a slow motion train wreck. I was like the flag man yelling " don't do that!! Go back!! Go this way! Speed Up, Slow down" whatever was the opposite direction of what she always did, which usually caused something "bad" to happen. Something she swore she did not want to happen but was that true? Did she really want it to stop or did she love the drama of it. I often wondered if that was how she liked getting attention, especially from me. After years of friendship, my mom recommended that perhaps this friend was not a good one for me. After some careful thought, I agreed because although she went from tragedy to tragedy and had a supportive friend (IE: ME) I found each issue more and more distressing. She was enjoying the relationship and I was feeling stressed by it. I miss that friend to this day but looking back it, the break was a positive one for me.

I look at myself and say "Ok, this happened again". Did I cause that or did someone else cause that and most of the time, if I was honest, I probably caused the issue. I'm a big believe in the saying "Keep doing what you are doing, as long as it's working well for you". In business this is so true and a lesson I learned a long time ago. If a selling technique results in a sale, keep on doing that technique as long as you want the sale. When hiring people, if you want someone who will become part of your team and stay with you for years, hire someone that has a resume that reads like that. I took a sales training class and I remember telling my mentor that I found being in business so hard. When pressed for why, I told him that everything was hard. He nicely pointed out that business can be easy, it was me that was making it hard. I was doing what I thought I should do, instead of what worked. I never forget that lesson and as my staff will tell you, I bring it up often. Only do what works, and get off the broken record for those things that end in failure.

That brings me to another saying that I love. "Failure is Impossible". Susan B Anthony used that line when talking about the right for Women to Vote. Failing is something you don't want to happen. Once you say I don't want this to happen, human nature is to try and try again. But are we trying different approaches or the same one over and over? In the case of Susan B Anthony, her goal was to do everything in her power to secure the right for women to vote. If one approach did not work, try another one. Why? Because it was so important that women have this right and so she used those famous words - Failure is Impossible. Perhaps if we all lived by those words we'd be less likely to blame others for reactions that our actions clearly caused.

And so in honor of Susan B Anthony who did not live long enough to see that she truly succeeded, I vow to get off my own broken record, to not do what I know does not work, to try new approaches until I succeed!! I have set my goals and now for me, failure is impossible!