SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome)

Have you ever wasted time, money, energy on something that you later realized was a total bust.   Maybe it was something you purchased.  Maybe it was a process you changed.  Maybe it was a new system you started using.  Well, you’re not alone!

Welcome to Episode 20

Why do we get caught up in these shiny objects?  Well, there are a few reasons.

1.  It’s just who you are.  It’s probably ingrained in your personality.  If you own an insurance agency, you and I probably have a few things in common.  We want to do well, we want to succeed and we want to fit in.  When we come across something that is promising to fill one of those needs, it’s easy for us to get wrapped up in that without seeing the SOS signals.  (See further down).

2.  FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)  At our core we want to fit in.  We want to be part of a larger group, a tribe.  When someone offers an entry into a tribe or threatens that we won’t be able to gain access if we don’t buy now, it gets our Limbic Lobe all in a panic and we purchase out of emotion.

3.  It is a way for us to distract ourselves or act as an escape from something in our lives.  It could be that you’re bored of your work and need an escape so purchasing a system that is going to take up tons of your time is a way for you to get away from the things in your job that you don’t want to do.  It could be that your scared of succeeding at something and in order to prevent yourself from focusing on the tasks that are going to make you more successful, you escape from that fear by purchasing something or changing a process, etc. 

Now that the WHY is out of the way let’s figure out the HOW...  There are 8 questions that I’ve come up with to help you determine if the thing, service, process, etc., that you’re considering pursuing, purchasing or changing is a shiny object.

1. Does this directly help me reach your goals?  
2. Is this right for your business? 
3. Do you have the time, resources, energy, and money to put into this to make it successful? 
4. Do you have too many open projects sitting on my desk that need to be finished before you begin something new? 
5. What do you have to stop doing to start something new? 
6. Communicate with your team.
7. Give yourself a time frame before making a purchase or a direction decision for your business
8. Set both long- and short-term goals with each new decision.

My 2 biggest takeaways from this episode are:

• Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s right for you or your business.
• Waiting to pull the trigger on a purchase or change might be one of the smartest things you can do.  We can’t get sidetracked by things that are unnecessary or that will take focus off the money making activities in our businesses.

” You don’t want to be that monkey who reaches in and grabs it because it’s attractive.” (Josh Berg – Agency Owner)

Watch the show below or catch it on our podcast above.

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