Options – Dave Glardon

Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope your day is starting off well.

I’ve often wondered what I would do if I got up in the morning and the coffee maker was broken. I know, if you’re a coffee drinker, that deserves an apology because it’s not a vision any of us wants to imagine. That rates right up there with flat tires and sitting down to the sound of the seat ripping out of your pants. At work. In a conference room. Full of the company’s top executives. Get the picture?

Thankfully, coffee makers don’t usually just quit all at once. You get a little advance warning. It starts brewing really slowly, it makes funny noises, and you start seeing chunks of something that doesn’t look like coffee grounds in the bottom of your cup. If that happens, run – don’t walk – to the nearest coffee maker store. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself without coffee when you need it the most.

It’s that way with a lot of things in life. You fall into a comfort zone where things are going well, and the thought of an abrupt change is the last thing on your mind. But it happens, and usually when you expect it the least. And it can require immediate action to avoid an even bigger mess. A lot of times, the outcome is largely dependent on our ability to act quickly at the first sign of trouble.

Rarely does anything go seriously wrong without at least some advance signs of trouble. Usually, we think about those signs after the wheel falls off the car and realize there was a noise we couldn’t quite identify, or a little extra sway in turns. It’s easy to write it off and just keep driving. But sooner or later, the problem will demand our attention. And the longer we wait, the more expensive it gets.

I have to take my car in for repairs this morning. I can’t quite describe the noise coming from the front end other than to say it sounds like I’m pushing a bulldozer blade down the road. And my car doesn’t have a bulldozer blade, so that’s probably not normal. And, thinking back, it’s been making little noises for a few weeks. I ignored those warnings, so now it’s shouting them at full volume.

But this isn’t really about coffee pots or cars. It’s about life. Because all through our life, things change. Relationships falter, the bank sends a foreclosure notice, the doctor walks in with bad news, or you find out you need a new job – like now. Any one of these things, or dozens of others, can throw you right out of your comfort zone and into full-blown survival mode.

It can hit you like a ton of bricks, but more often than not, there were signs of trouble long before the sky fell in. Those signs may have been subtle, or they may have like a red flashing light, something you couldn’t have missed with your eyes half-closed. But it’s easy to ignore those initial warning signs until they start screaming at us. By then, comfort has turned to crisis and we have no choice but to do something about it.

We talked earlier this week about creativity, and if you want to see creative thought in overdrive, put yourself in a crisis. You’ll dream up things you would never have thought of, simply because you don’t have any other choice. What you’ve been doing hasn’t worked, so now you have to do something different – maybe something you’ve never done before.

And most times, we look back later and wonder why we didn’t just do that in the first place. Maybe it was something so completely out of character, or out of our comfort zone, that it never really crossed our mind. And I’m not talking about anything immoral or illegal. Just a different approach that we never would have considered. But now, it’s the perfect fix. It’s the right thing at the right time.

Again, the change may be subtle, something you do without really batting an eye. It can also be something monumental that takes a complete leap of faith into the unknown. Or it could be something in between, where we have the option to make the easier move or to put it all on the line and make it work. Notice I didn’t say “hope for the best” – it’s all or nothing.

If we take notice at the first sign of impending trouble, we can usually avoid a crisis. And if we assess our options before they have to become choices, we can move in the direction we choose rather than the direction in which we’re pushed. A minor course correction may be all that’s needed, if we do it early enough. The goal never really changes – just the path you’ll follow to get there.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day and a fantastic weekend!

Good morning! I hope your day is starting off right.

I’m getting a late start today. Well, later than normal. Twice last week my three-year-old grandson asked me to stay home and cook him some eggs. Today I decided to do just that. These years pass by way too quickly and the day comes when anything is more important than spending time with Grandpa. So, you enjoy these times while you can.

It’s nice having the option to work from home. Still, I’m one of the few who’s in the office every day. I just feel more productive when I’m at work. Besides, I like being around other people. I’ve been told I’m the official greeter of the fifth floor, because I make a point of saying good morning to everyone I see. It’s a responsibility I take seriously.

But, on the other hand, I’m trying to ease more into working from home for a couple of simple reasons. First, while we’re in the sweltering days of summer with heat indexes in the danger zone, I know it won’t be long and the pendulum will swing the other way. And there are few things I despise as much as getting into a frozen car and driving to work on snow and ice.

Also, as I’ve mentioned a few times before, my wife and I are buying a motorhome next year and we may decide to make that more of a permanent residence. Neither of us is certain where we want to retire, other than someplace warm and with an ocean. That narrows it down, but there are still hundreds of places that meet those requirements – we just need to find the right one for us.

So, the plan is to get out there and do some exploring. Find someplace interesting and go. When we get there we can decide how long we want to stay. If it’s someplace we really like, maybe we’ll come back in a few months and see how it is during the winter, or summer, or tourist season, or whatever. If we don’t like it, we can pull the plug, raise the jacks, and find someplace else to go.

When you can work from home, then home can be pretty much anyplace you want it to be. We have people on our team working in several different states, all across the country. Some like it hot, some like it cold, and some just like anyplace where the uniform of the day is pajamas.

To me, the best part is you don’t have to find a home based on the local economy. For most of us, where we live is largely determined by where we work. Some of the least expensive and quietest places to live don’t have much to offer in terms of employment. The more high-paying jobs a city has to offer, the higher the cost of living. Funny how that works.

Imagine if you could live anywhere you want without ever having to worry about where you’ll find work. What if you could build a business on the side without having to worry about location? You could live in a city, on a beach, in the boondocks, or on an island. Going to work could be as simple as crossing the hallway into another room or setting up a laptop by the pool. Okay, I’m sold!

Depending on your profession, that may or may not be an option. But our profession, like many other things, is a choice we make. We think we’re limited by things like skills, education, and experience. But those things we can acquire. That doesn’t mean you have to scrap it all and start over. It just means doing a little extra to put yourself in a better situation down the road.

And it may mean thinking completely outside the box. Employers love to use that phrase because it means using our creativity to improve our own job performance and come up with profitable ideas for the company. But it also means giving yourself options you didn’t have before. With options, you have choices. You get to make decisions based on your goals instead of basing your goals on someone else’s decisions.

When we expand our options outside “the box,” everything becomes possible. Things that didn’t make sense before make sense now. Things that wouldn’t have worked before become the best possible solution to the problem. And instead of limiting ourselves to the life we’ve known to this point, we enter the realm of unlimited possibilities. It’s a good habit to get into.

Whether you decide you’d like to work from home someday or not, never allow your life to be limited by your current circumstances. Opportunities are everywhere, just waiting to be discovered. When you find one that can lead you to your goals, grab hold and don’t ever let go. It may not be for everybody. It just has to be for you.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Tag: Options

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