Firstly, apologies for my lack of blog consistency lately – the reason will become clear in a moment!
Do you remember me talking about financial freedom a couple of weeks ago? About the simple things we need to do on a regular basis to surely build towards financial health and security? Doing the right things on a consistent basis.
And how I likened that to the long-term rehab of my back injury. How as long as I did my physio exercises every day then I was ok and building my physical strength.
Well.
I am an idiot.
A stupid idiot!
Where it all went wrong
Over a period of almost 2 weeks, during which we were very busy with some travel followed by long days of back to back workshop delivery, I somehow managed to completely drop my daily exercise routines for keeping my back healthy.
Cue Major Meltdown a couple of weeks ago when my back seized up leaving me unable to stand or walk, (leading to some most undignified moments) and having to cancel everything in my diary for the following week.
All because I felt I “didn’t have time”.
And to be fair a bit of smugness and complacency about how fit I was now and didn’t really “need” to do all that stuff every day.
We’re too busy
This is how we behave in our businesses too, especially around our finances.
When we get busy we stop looking at the numbers. Stop looking at the flash report that tells us where we’re going. Stop looking at the cash flow forecast. Stop looking at last months’ accounts because it doesn’t feel as important as what’s on fire at the moment.
We’re doing well…. Aren’t we?
Or we drop what we know is important because it feels like we’re doing so well now that we just don’t need to! It feels like we’re busy, like we’re making money. The last accounts were good, I’m sure things are fine……..
But – things tend to go wrong when we’re not paying attention.
What’s the cost of letting things slip?
When things go off track it takes a lot more time and effort to pull it back than if we just maintained our good habits in the first place.
My muppet-like behaviour cost me a week out of the business – time that I can’t recover, I had to cancel a speaking event, and it will have cost me a month out of my fitness training, which will probably set me back 3-4 months in total. I’ve lost revenue I can never get back, and let clients down, not to mention a week of serious pain!
And all for what? Saving a bit of time each day? Being bothered?
It sounds ridiculous, but we drop important things all the time for stupid reasons.
Finance disciplines are non-negotiable
If you’re serious about your own financial future why would you put it at risk?
Finances isn’t something you do, or look at now and again. It’s not just there for when things are good, or bad. Keeping your business finances under control is something you do every day, week and month. That way you don’t have to go to survival mode, into panic, to fix something you would have seen coming and prevented if only you’d been paying attention!
Not investing the time on the critical few disciplines will set you back time and time again.
Just how much time and effort do you want to waste along the way?
If we keep the important pillars in place, then things are much less likely to go wrong in the first place. And just how much more will you achieve, and who could you become if you stop de-railing yourself, stop sabotaging yourself by letting the important things slip?