November 13, 2008 58 Comments

Stuck in the Trenches

Canyons It’s easiest to keep doing what you’ve been doing. It’s no effort at all to keep looking at the same metrics, make the same moves, do the same thing with a new name, even. Your customers are good enough. Why prospect for more? The way you tell your product’s story is excellent. It’s worked for several years. Why change it?

You, at your desk, can come back and do the same thing over and over and over for weeks and weeks, and it will look like youre doing something. It will feel like you’re moving. But if you’re in the trenches, and you can’t see things from a different perspective, how do you know it’s working? How do you know anything?

In life, in business, in our interactions with people, the most visible thing is that things are the way they are. The truth, with effort, is that everything can change. Nothing is permanent. Your job is not permanent. Your relationships aren’t permanent. Where you live, what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, are all things that, with effort, could move. Could change.

Are you stuck in the trenches or are you looking at 2009 with new eyes? With or without the answers, will you stick with what you’ve been doing, whether or not it’s working? Or will you be daring and try something new?

I’m over here trying something new. How about you?

Related posts:

  1. Trenches and Ponds

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  • http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com olivier blanchard

    Everyone always goes into the new year with great expectations of change. “I’ll do this.” “I’ll do that.” “I’ll lose weight.” “I’ll change my ways.” Yeah… It’s nice. By mid-February, all that talk of change is completely gone.

    Fact: Most people won’t make any changes in 2009, no matter how certain they are of the opposite right now. No matter how great an idea, there will always be an excuse why it can’t be done, a reason why it shouldn’t be done, or a tomorrow when maybe they’ll get to it.

    Those of us who embrace change don’t really have that problem… but we still have to live in a world populated with people who only TALK about change.

    Anyone who wants to have an amazing 2009, come on board. Hop on our train. There’s room. Everyone else… well, I guess we’ll see you next year.

  • http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com olivier blanchard

    Everyone always goes into the new year with great expectations of change. “I’ll do this.” “I’ll do that.” “I’ll lose weight.” “I’ll change my ways.” Yeah… It’s nice. By mid-February, all that talk of change is completely gone.

    Fact: Most people won’t make any changes in 2009, no matter how certain they are of the opposite right now. No matter how great an idea, there will always be an excuse why it can’t be done, a reason why it shouldn’t be done, or a tomorrow when maybe they’ll get to it.

    Those of us who embrace change don’t really have that problem… but we still have to live in a world populated with people who only TALK about change.

    Anyone who wants to have an amazing 2009, come on board. Hop on our train. There’s room. Everyone else… well, I guess we’ll see you next year.

  • http://www.unboundedition.com Michele Parrish

    There are an enormous number of American “knowledge” workers, companies and MBA programs whose work and whose professional standing is based solely on the agreed-upon script. They have long since stopped thinking, responding, understanding, questioning and interpreting. They can’t improvise to save their lives. What we need are critical thinkers. We need innovators. We need improvisers. We need fearless visionaries. We need business leaders. Our current crises will not be solved by trying to reconstruct the old paradigms and by reciting the same script on PowerPoint.

    Here’s a video that I think every marketer should think about as they approach 2009: http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/8823/52/

  • http://www.unboundedition.com Michele Parrish

    There are an enormous number of American “knowledge” workers, companies and MBA programs whose work and whose professional standing is based solely on the agreed-upon script. They have long since stopped thinking, responding, understanding, questioning and interpreting. They can’t improvise to save their lives. What we need are critical thinkers. We need innovators. We need improvisers. We need fearless visionaries. We need business leaders. Our current crises will not be solved by trying to reconstruct the old paradigms and by reciting the same script on PowerPoint.

    Here’s a video that I think every marketer should think about as they approach 2009: http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/8823/52/

  • http://www.netpopresearch.com Rudy

    Very insightful post, Chris.

    It does remind me that the necessary result of, say, an impending recession (like that will ever happen…) is re-evaluation of purpose and direction. If you are unable to innovate and stay relevant, then you fail.

    It’s a pity that we don’t maintain this mindset when things are going well.

  • http://www.netpopresearch.com Rudy

    Very insightful post, Chris.

    It does remind me that the necessary result of, say, an impending recession (like that will ever happen…) is re-evaluation of purpose and direction. If you are unable to innovate and stay relevant, then you fail.

    It’s a pity that we don’t maintain this mindset when things are going well.

  • http://chinahomedesign.ru Доигкисса

    Спасибо. То, что нужно ))

  • http://chinahomedesign.ru Доигкисса

    Спасибо. То, что нужно ))

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