We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s hard to drain the swamp when we’re up to our butts in alligators.” How many of us spend our day “combatting the alligators” instead of remaining focused on the original task? Isn’t this a business that brings an alligator our way every time the phone rings, someone comes in our door or we look at our emails?

  Well, this final installment of challenges and solutions is going to re-focus you back to your original intention. What that is for you may be different than your colleague, but most of you will say it is about taking care of families in need, taking care of your own family and, hopefully, taking care of yourself. For many, that last one drops off of your list as the “alligators” are taking too much of your time, attention and energy leaving nothing left for you at the end of the day. 

  So how can we stay in balance when the industry in which we make our livelihood is rapidly moving towards cremation, low-cost cremation, direct cremation, no wake, no funeral, no burial, no income for you? The first step is to breathe. Take a deep breath and center yourself back into this very moment. Look around and notice if your lights are on (electrical bill paid), vehicles fueled (money to pay for gasoline), phones working (paid the cell and landline bill), staff in sight (made payroll this month), etc. etc. I had to do this exercise once when I worried over every snowstorm cancelling my clients and not being able to pay my bills. Enough nights of “weather worry” made me stop and realize that, in fact, this had never happened. Not once, never. I always made payroll, utilities were never turned off, food was in my refrigerator, clothes on my body and in my closet. The fear consumed me, but the reality was quite different. Since that moment, whenever a money worry crosses my mind, I take a mental inventory of everything that is going right in my world financially. I set aside the worry and instead start making plans. Take a look at your business logically, instead of emotionally. Analyze figures, decide what adjustments can be made and then take action on your ideas. According to the CANA website, cremation began in 3,000 BC during the Stone Age. It isn’t going away, it isn’t a “fad” and it is impacting your business. So stop worrying and start planning.

  Time is not the enemy…although it may feel like it. Every person, whether President, Pope or pauper gets the same amount of time each day. How we use it creates the basis for our life. There is a riddle that asks: What is more precious than gold, but cannot be bought, earned or saved? Time, of course. Yet even with the same amount of hours, how is it that we end each day feeling like our “to do” list grew longer and sleep becomes the enemy for our productivity. We want time to finish our work, time to spend with our own family and time to ourselves. No matter how we spend it, organizing it is the key to solving this riddle. Whatever your organizational system, you must know what you have to, when you have to do it and what priority it is in your day. We waste so much time on tasks that can wait…or never need to get done in the first place. Lee Cockerell (a retired Disney executive) just published a great book called Time Management Magic. If Lee could run all of the Orlando Disney properties and still have time to spend with his wife and children, certainly you can learn his tools and find more balance in your life. Do you know the most important person to spend time with? Yourself. If you don’t have time to rest, relax, ponder and play, then no matter how productive you are, you will never feel fully engaged in your own life.

  I made a deal with my own “inner child” this summer. I committed to doing one fun thing every week. I must admit that at first it was hard to step back from my “adult” concept of fun being meeting a friend for lunch or taking a bike ride for exercise. Instead I had carpet picnics, camped in my backyard, played board games and more. This lifestyle change has made me happier, healthier and less stressed. I had a teacher who told me, “People who are too serious tend to end up in serious condition.” I’d rather worry less about what people think of me when they see me dancing in the rain and worry more about how I feel about myself.

  And that is where we will end this four-part series. Yes, we all face challenges in our professional lives. Yes, they can create stress and worry. Yet, each of us has the freedom to choose how to handle these challenges. We can withdraw back into victim mode and feel that “life is happening to me” or we can move forward determined to create a “life that happens because of me.”  One final riddle: Imagine you are in a dark room. How do you get out of it? Answer: Stop imagining it!  Remember you are the master of your thoughts, don’t let them take you where you don’t want to go.