A toddler is running your business (and here's how to stop it)

Are you letting a toddler run your business?

“I want cake, now!”

“Give me that new toy”

“I don’t want to do that, it’s boring”

The primitive part of our brain is wired to seek novelty.

It's a bit like a toddler.

We get dopamine hits when new things come along.

New things feel exciting.

And we want to do them NOW!

So, if you find yourself making business decisions from a place of excitement, you're really handing over the reins to a toddler.

And when you're making snap decisions driven by this primitive part of your brain, these are not conducive to a successful business.

Because this primitive part of our brain is always focused on the here and now.

So how might that look for you?

Maybe you find yourself getting excited and saying yes (I want cake!) immediately.

Only to rush around later from a place of overwhelm, scrambling to get everything done because you’ve overcommitted.

So you end up working late.

You get to bed later. And later.

Your running routine you’d just nailed is now out the window.

That yoga you'd planned twice a week? Forget it.

You’re getting more and more exhausted, week after week of trying to deliver on what you promised.

And that new project you got so excited about?

It probably doesn't feel quite so exciting now.

It feels draining.

Your brain is constantly switching gears from this - to that - to this.

Everything feels so unnecessarily stressful.

All you want to do is press pause and escape from the commitments you’ve made.

Those commitments you decided to do in haste - from excitement.

Decisions from excitement often lead to compromising yourself and your ability to deliver.

Your packed schedule has less thinking time.

You’re not using your brain to fully solve problems, just rushing from thing to thing.

Not much fun.

Time for a toddler tantrum, maybe?

If you notice you’re doing this, it’s ok.

You have a human brain that gets dopamine hits from shiny new things.

That’s all.

Just notice it and tune in to when it’s happening.

Instead, kindly interrupt the toddler and ask it to go play with some toys, take back the reins of your business and make decisions from a place of calm.

Here’s how:

1. If you notice you’re feeling excited and with a high buzz of energy when you’re making a decision, pause. Breathe through it. 
2. Create some space before making the decision. If someone else is involved, say you’ll get back to them. Creating a block of time in your calendar to properly weigh up the decision and how it fits with your strategy, goals and upcoming commitments. 
3. Ask yourself (write down) - if you were to commit to this opportunity - what are all the things that would need done? What are all the things that could get in the way? How would you overcome those obstacles? How does this fit with your business and existing commitments? If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?
4. What do you need to believe to feel calm? Sit with that. Now, make your decision.

When you make decisions from a place of calm, you’re using your pre-frontal cortex.

The decision-making, planning part of your brain.

It’s like a supercomputer.

It’s evolved to make decisions.

And it makes amazing ones.

So don’t let a toddler run your business.

You run your business.

From a place of calm.