Compared to what?

Posted by Hugh at 8:21 am 0 Comments

I’m sitting here checking my email, listening to the construction sounds from a site down the street. They are adding a new sanctuary to a church site, and it’s been going on for almost a year. Almost every day I hear these sounds, and sometimes they are quite distracting. At those times, I regularly console myself with the thought, …” at least its a church and they are not building a bar or an adult movie theatre”.

Well, this morning the sounds- and this familiar thought- got me thinking about how I make decisions. Whenever I am evaluating something, I start with the ideal scenario. In a perfect world, such and such would be true. This particular cell phone would have all of these features and it would be free. This home would be in the perfect location and the asking price would be a steal. Very quickly though, reality kicks in and I inevitably end up parsing down my list of ideals to a comparison of essentials vs. non-essentials. A combination of things I can live with and things I can’t live without.

We all strive for the ideal, but reality requires us to adjust our thinking. To get this feature set in this cellphone, I am willing to pay this much or sign this contract. To live in this kind of house in the location, I am willing to pay this much and put up with rules of the HOA. And so it goes…

So, how does this relate to your company or organization? Do you regularly let the “construction sounds” around you cause you to do this evaluation?  What are your essentials vs. your non-essentials? Are you overdue to ask yourself and your co-laborers
this question?