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It’s all too familiar to each of us – no matter how “gentle” the sound of our alarm, it’s always a shrill reminder that our deep slumber is only temporary and we must face the day ahead. At that very instant, a choice is made – to hit the snooze button to allow for another ten minutes of blissful sleep; or press the off button and charge forward without hesitation. No matter which choice we make, a decision is behind it. Granted, it’s a seemingly small decision, made in a semi-conscious state; but it will still have consequences.
That decision to sleep ten or twenty minutes later in the day can trigger a cascade of additional decisions that will very likely shape the outcome of your day. Consider this fairly typical day-in-a-life:
Having decided to press the snooze button twice, you are now twenty minutes behind your typical schedule. Instead of the healthy breakfast you try to eat each morning, you decide to grab a piece of toast with jam on the run. Instead of arriving ten minutes early for work, which usually allows you to get organized and charged, you arrive right on time but are forced to jump right in just to get on pace.
Your fast but unhealthy breakfast leaves you feeling empty, so you compensate by eating more than you typically do for lunch causing you to skip your 20 minute workout on the treadmill. Within an hour you start to feel sluggish making it very difficult to keep up your normal pace. Despite your rule of “no caffeine after lunch,” you decide to down a cup of coffee prior to your late afternoon meeting with the management team but it can’t clear the fog enveloping your thoughts.
Realizing it hasn’t been one of your better days, and having skipped your lunchtime exercise, you decide to go to the gym after work hoping it can reenergize your mind and body. Of course it does, and between your racing metabolism and the remnants of caffeine in your blood, you can’t get to sleep, so you decide to watch some Jerry Seinfeld reruns, almost ensuring a repeat of this morning’s decision to hit the snooze button. And, because you know your clock gives you three snooze opportunities, you’re likely to have a worse day tomorrow.
No big deal you say? Entrepreneurs have days like that, don’t they? True enough, however, if you string enough days like that together, the hundreds or thousands of “small decisions” entrepreneurs can make each day can have life-changing consequences. It’s these “micro-decisions” entrepreneurs make constantly throughout the day that chain themselves together like a growing virus to form the habits – good and bad – that shape our daily lives, and, ultimately, our future.
The consequences are only compounded for married couples who engage in a battle of the snooze buttons each morning, especially when one spouse is asked to “cover” for the other, as in, “Honey, can you wake me up in ten minutes?” First, there is the threat of resentment that might build for the spouse who must take responsibility for both getting up on time. Then there is the catastrophic risk of neither getting up on time. The ensuing chaos, anger and frustration, especially if this is a daily habit, not only set an unfriendly tone for the day, it can lead to a compounding resentment that plays out in many other aspects of the relationship. It is, simply, not worth it. As the first major co-decision of the day – to hit or not to hit the snooze button – it can have a life changing, ripple effect on the relationship.
To become an expert in making more right decisions, take the online course “The Decision Simplifier™” at www.TheDecisionSimplifier.com. Whether you have 5 minutes or All Day, the comprehensive and robust course is going to help you achieve a new level of success in your business and life. To bring Bimal or his team to your organization to speak, train, or coach, visit www.BizActionCoach.com
By Bimal Shah.
