Lying awake early this morning I was already busy trying to anticipate, control and prepare for what I knew was before me later in the day. Leading a business whether earnings before taxes of a few million, or 30 billion, is filled with big issues as you try to grow, remain profitable and exceed expectations of your customers. I have said it often, if you want to run into your personal monsters, start your own business, or go after something bigger than what you can control. Today I was feeling stressed! Thoughts around deadlines, big opportunities, solutions that were difficult and in need of a miracle raced through my mind.

What do we do when we are unsure of what to do? Do the next thing! I don’t mean aimlessness, but the bias toward action wins out every time over being frozen in fear and doing nothing. So I got up and started my day. I played basketball with the guys, did my early morning routines, then started into my list of things to do. I think I have learned that mere awareness of what I have to do only increases the stress if I don’t also trust a process that gets the work done well. The question I had to face today was, “do I have an excellent mechanism to move me from being stuck in my toxic pool of stress, to executing well and experiencing inner peace?” This is an issue you face. What is your process or mechanism that converts your intention to results? Everybody wants productivity and the spoils of victory, very few are actually successful. Take a half a day and don’t just work in the business or for that matter in your life, but on the business and on your life. Create the mechanism that helps you be more productive and worry free.