There’s nothing like real pain to make you reflect on your mistakes and wise up. We raised five hundred thousand ringgit in debt October 2016 to grow our business.
In the months that followed, we made all the standard business mistakes and more. The upshot of it was that, by June 2018, all the money was long gone. The business that resulted is not big enough to service the debt when it comes due. The time left to grow our business to the required level is running short.
What followed was a period of demotivation and deceleration. It added a significant amount of stress and pressure on to us. Towards the end of June we welcomed a second child to our family. That drove it home to me that we had to change and change fast.
I believed we screwed up because we had poor work habits, processes and systems. Habits appeared to be the limiting factor. The fundamental unit underpinning both processes and systems. If you have poor habits, you have poor everything else. So I started by fixing that.
Changing habits is a long process. It may take years or more before it becomes a part of you. But the key thing to remember is that results take much faster to materialise. It will take years before it becomes second nature to prioritise important tasks. But the benefits appear in weeks and months.
One thing that has struck me is that you can’t solve today’s problems today. Today’s problems are a result and consequences of actions in the past. Since the causes are in the past, there is no way to fix today’s problems without inventing time travel.
What you can do today, is to change your future. What you do today will not solve today’s problems, but it will affect your life a few years down the road.
For example, maybe you are struggling financially. You could use an increase in your salary. But your current job and pay grade is a result and consequence of decisions in your past. Decisions resulting in your current network, education history, previous experience, et cetera.
There is almost nothing legal and ethical that you can do today that increases your income now. But you can do a lot today to increase your future income.
Put another way, what you do today will affect your life three years down the road. Whether you think about it or not. Whether you care about it or not. Whether you want it or not. Whether if you’re even aware of it or not.
Seen this way, it’s only common sense to invest the time and effort to do the right thing today. It may seem like just another day, another 24 hours. But this 24 hours will compound. Your future you will either thank you or hate you for it.
Hence my commitment to changing my habits. My belief is that only with good habits can we create better systems and better processes. That, in turn, will allow us to make the right decisions. And over time, the right decisions will create the desired results.
What is the right thing you should do today?