A Sandwich, a samosa and 2 Dunkin donuts

One sandwich, one samosa and 2 Dunkin Donuts walked into my life at the same time and were consumed with consummate ease. The sorry incident was as a result of laziness on my part to pack a good lunch and, unfortunately, was closely followed by an afternoon run. A 32 degrees afternoon (89F).

The plan was a 60min run including a Marathon Paced Session(MPS) block for 40min in the middle with a warm up and cool down either side. I don't think that I have to say that I didn’t make it and failed quite spectacularly at 35min into the run. I was feeling ill and only managed to get half way. All because of one sandwich, one samosa and 2 Dunkin Donuts. The walk of shame to my car was a site I'm glad only me and one chap on the side of the road got to see.

Now, its not a tragedy to muck up one training session. Get back, refocus and try be better. But if this becomes a regular occurrence what is the long term impact on my goals for this year? Massive.

It’s the same in business. Perhaps not in the form of a poor lunch, but the insidious slip into the pit of sameness comes in many forms. And it takes our eyes off the goals we set for ourselves. Have you ever seen someone prepared for a client presentation in the parking lot, because they were too busy to do it before? Found someone else using an old template and slapping in the numbers because "It will do and the client will never notice" instead of creating one worth the value of the deal. Or seeing someone going into a meeting or a staff one on one and ‘winging it’ because, well, "I know this stuff and preparation isn’t required!" Unfortunately these undermine our abilities to deliver at the level which we should be at and lowers our chances of winning. Again and again and again. Slow down, plan and be better.

A sandwich, a samosa and 2 Dunkin Donuts are ok as a once off but they hurt when they become a habit.?