When I was a boy in Melbourne my grandmother used to take me ‘into town’. We’d dress up and go in on the tram. It was like going ‘downtown’ in the US.
There were many treats and special things we did but one of my all-time-favouries was to vist Downyflake in Swanston Street. It was donut central! A major donut establishment with the freshly cooked donuts tracking around the store and all along the front window on what looked like a little toy train track.
I would look in the window and salivate for as long as I could stand it and then Sammy (my own nickname for my grandmother) and I would go in and make our choices. Yummm! I still specialise in donuts to this very day.
As I was munching through my second donut, happy now, and the feeding frenzy was beginning to subside I would always look up at the very big colourful mosaic mural which displayed a huge donut and the following words of wisdom:
As you wander on through life, whatever be your goal,
keep your eye upon the donut and not upon the hole.
This week is POW WEEK or Problem/Opportunity Week.
I want to get you thinking about what are the Top 3 Problems and the Top 3 Opportunities in your business, career or life right now.
This week we are not looking to solve the problems or to harvest the opportunities – just to identify and list them. That’s all!!
Problems and Opportunities
A problem is a situation which may require a solution, a way out, an option, a fresh start, a cure or a new approach.
An opportunity is a situation that may need to be explored, a plan that needs to be worked out, an idea that needs to be developed, a possibility that needs testing or researched.
Your problems or opportunities are often personal, business, family, recreational, academic, scientific, physical, or philosophical.
When we ask about their problem/opportunity areas business people nearly always say:
– career or purpose in life,
– time
– stress,
– getting a better balance between professional and personal life,
– money issues,
– bringing more creativity and flexibility into their company.
DFQ #16:
Choose between the following and cut and paste your choice below:
– I tend to focus more on the problems in my business/career/life.– I tend to focus more on the opportunities in my business/career/life.
I tend to focus more on the opportunities in my business / career / life
top 3 opportunities
1. the chance to create something amazing, huge and far reaching
2. to connect more with my clients for mutual benefit
3. to clear the decks and start afresh, with no. 1 above, for 2011
top 3 problems
1. getting too carried away with the opportunities and not attending to the mundane everyday tasks that MUST be attended to.
2. being behind with the mundane necessary tasks
3. distraction
I tend to focus more on the problems in my business/career/life.
I tend to focus on the problems first and then switch to the opportunities. I trade options with a strategy I have developed which I call donutoptions (and have the url donutoptions.com (although the site is not up at the moment)) and interestingly I focus on the hole and keep away from the donut. The hole is where my opportunity lies (& if you like golf you will know that is where the focus is) To me the donut itself represents not opportunity but something to be avoided as it means price is not where I want it; meanwhile the donut represents unhealth as it is sweet & sugary (which needs to be avoided) and is contains refined flour (which is a poison as well as being a blocker & filler & lacking any nutrition) cv2bv
I tend to focus more on the problems in my business/career/life.
– I tend to focus more on the problems in my business/career/life.
I tend to focus more on the problem in my business/career/life.
1.personal relationship
2.money
3health
I tend to focus more on the problems in my business/career/life.
1. money
2. personal relationships
3. health
– I tend to focus more on the problems in my business/career/life.
The donut is colourful and yet my eyes tend to be drawn to the white hole whenever I look at it. I just realise that I tend to focus more on the problems in my business/career/life and that might explain why I feel stress all the time. I need to learn to shift focus onto the colourful donut.
I tend to focus more on the opportunities in my business/career/life.