I had a head-on collision with a 4-year-old.

Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash.

I was on high alert as I rolled through town on my trusty steed (a.k.a. my bike) last week at a brisk walking pace. I’ve had a few too many close calls in the mall, so I know I can’t afford to relax.

Looking ahead, I saw a mum pushing a pram. She was heading towards my right, so I decided I’d roll between her and the car to my left. As I reached the back of the car, suddenly and completely out of nowhere came a young child on a scooter.

In a split second, I leaned back and pulled on my brakes, stopping dead while still standing on my pedals. It wasn’t enough though. The 4-year-old kept coming and hit my front wheel, head-on.

He fell off his scooter, and I thought I was going down with him. Luckily I unclipped from my pedal and got my foot on the ground before I fell.

My first thought:

‘Oh my god, I just hit a child!!! 

The first thing I said was:

“I’m so sorry. Is he ok?”

The first thing his mum said was:

“I’m so sorry, are you ok?”

Now, this confused me a little. So much so, I responded with:

“Don’t worry about me. I just hit your child. Is he ok?”

Thankfully, he bounced back up and was off on his scooter quicker than I could apologise.

Thankfully, he was wearing a helmet and was completely fine.

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Once I made it home - with no more collisions - I started to wonder about his Mum’s reaction.

It made me think about how, when you’re stressed, you don’t think logically. My first thought was for her child, whereas she was more worried about me, a fully grown adult who hadn’t even fallen off my bike. Apart from being a little shaken because I just hit a child, I was completely ok. The Mum didn’t even check on her son because she was concerned about the total stranger in the situation.

It reminded me of a time when I used to have so much on my plate as an online business owner.

In hindsight, I made so many wrong decisions because I was stressed out of my mind. Running at 110% every single day until I crashed in a heap meant I was constantly chasing the end of the to-do list, never stopping to consider whether the items on the to-do list were going to bring me a high return on my investment of cash or time. Looking back, most of them didn’t, and that played a major part in the failure of my first online business.

Since then, I’ve learned the value of taking time out to think, plan and relax. I’ve realised these things are actually more important than the time you spend doing the work because when you take the time to make good decisions, you skyrocket your productivity.

If you’re trying to run your business from fight or flight mode and it’s not working out for you, it’s time to take a step back, relax and reassess.

When you join my FREE email course ‘7 Days to Stress-Free Success’, I’ll walk you through 7 short exercises to help you understand how you should be spending your time to give you the highest chance of success… PLUS it’ll stop you flying about like a crazy toddler on a scooter. Tap here to have your first lesson sent straight to your inbox.