There was a time when my family went through the proverbial “ringer” of life…. Tragedy seemed to lurk on every corner, hospital visits were frequent and serious, and we all jumped when the phone rang – having been trained by Professor Tragedy to expect the worst. During this time, I prayed. A lot. =) In my lowest times, my prayer was simple… “Lord, let us leave here with nothing lost.”
Nothing lost. No body parts. No function. No future. No life. I prayed simply for us to walk away having lost nothing of significance. I’m grateful to say that life was always spared, but significant loss… well, that simply became what we endured.
Now, I’ve not gone super soft or uber-religious on you today! I just got to thinking about how pitiful that prayer was… how utterly defeated it was… and how absent of hope…
I’ve had the remarkable opportunity to travel the country on the Spark & Hustle National Tour and speak to business owners from all over the nation. And, when they allow themselves to pull back the curtain on what’s really going on with them and their business, I see some of that “nothing lost” mentality. Truthfully, I’ve seen it in myself many, many times: That mentality of playing not to lose, rather than playing to win BIG.
It’s all rooted in FEAR, and it causes us to play safe. We say we need to see huge results, but we are only willing to make small changes. We say we are confident in what we can do, yet – we’re unwilling to fully bet on ourselves. We say that this is our year, but we allow week after week to go by without bold action towards our goals. We’re playing not to lose.
My prayer of walking away with “nothing lost” brings back a flood of emotions and a world of life lessons. But in the world of business, my hope is that you’ll start PLANning and PLAYing with a different mentality… One that is about winning, creating and expanding rather than one dedicated to protecting against potential loss.
Define where “playing not to lose” is showing up in your business plan and switch it around. What would it look like to transform that ONE AREA with a “playing to win- BIG” mentality instead? What would YOU have to change to make that happen? What would likely change for you when you did?
Wow…Michelle…totally awesome post ! I believe we as women….to often tend to play it safe because we, by design, try to keep the peace and don’t rock the boat. Not only do we need to rock the boat and get out of the water…we need to build a new “ship” and move others along the river, ocean or canal….and help them put words into action! This is exactly what I see you and Tory doing! Spark and Hustle is totally changing peoples lives, but we must also remember, we can often become too stagnant….I know this all too well! Thanks Michelle….I needed this today!