Are you building your business with each decision you make? Or do you sometimes think “this doesn’t really matter one way or the other?” Years ago I read a quote from Louise Hays that was something like “every day you either build your health or tear it down, your health doesn’t stay the same from day to day.” She made the point that we THINK our daily choices don’t make much difference sometimes. We labor under the false believe that our bodies pretty much stay the same from day to day.
Last night I ran across this quote from Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, “You are either making obesigenic choices or leptogenic choices. Obesigenic choices make you obese and leptogenic choices make you thin.” That means EVERY choice. There is no “neutral” food, I guess. (Although my mother used to swear that the energy it took to chew celery meant you could eat it and lose weight, ha!)
As I’m sure you realize, it’s the same in business. I’ve watched business owners I know and love kill their businesses with what I call “death by a thousand cuts.” They consistently put it off, fail to decide, put everything in the entire world above their business in priority, and then wonder (and often whine) when “nothing ever happened.” I once had a very accomplished client who was very expert in her field tell me, “People just didn’t want what I offered, it was such a shame.” I Googled what she offered and there were 7 million searches for it. REALLY she didn’t want to do it, was bored with it, and didn’t market it effectively. She let every sniffle and every family event and every relationship crisis get her off track. Her business choices were leptogenic. Almost every decision she made meant that her business was losing “weight.”
If we want to have a business that is “gaining weight” then we need to make obesigenic choices. We need to ask ourselves, “Are my actions today building or taking away from what I want to accomplish?”
My belief is that when we make leptogenic decisions for our businesses we are:
- Unconscious about the effect of our choices (not thinking longer term)
- Not truly engaged in what we say we want (have a pipe dream but no real clarity)
- Don’t understand the behaviors and tools it takes to create a going business.
If you want to build your business with a structured plan and choices that help your business “gain weight” let me know. Maybe one of my virtual one-on-one VIP days is for you.
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Jennifer Bourn says
Sue – This is a fabulous way to think about our businesses, and a way example of how every choice we make big and small is either moving us toward our goals or hindering that movement and making it harder to reach out goals. I do agree that we may not even be doing it consciously, but simply being aware of the decision-making process and approaching it from this perspective can make a big difference in HOW you make decisions.
Mary Ellen Miller says
Sue this is a superb post. I never knew what those words meant but I completely agree with the premise. We do make healthy/unhealthy choices every day in small ways that add up.
Mitch Tublin says
This is one of the big differences in thinking when someone
chooses to work for themselves vs. working for a corporation.
Mira Dessy, NE, The Ingredient Guru and author The Pantry Principle says
So important to remember that we need to build our business with each decision that we make. You’re right, all those decisions do matter.
Heidi Alexandra The Company Culture and Brand Architect says
smart advice Sue – I* also believe that many business owners we work with are unconscious about the effect of our choices and lack real clarity -hiring someone independent and external to support you work on improving this is a smart strategy!
Tandy Elisala says
I love this!!! “every day you either build your health or tear it down, your health doesn’t stay the same from day to day.” Great reminder of how everything feeds in together!
Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist says
I just love this analogy and tie into to gaining weight for your business – yeah to that! and making every single thing count
Sue Painter says
Thanks, Trudy. 🙂
Paula says
Love this, Sue. I talk about it in terms of weaving. You weave your life or your business one thread at a time and each thread affects the whole…
Great post.
Sue Painter says
Yes, Paula, that’s a great metaphor, too.
Sue