What’s your goal? Our goals can be broken down into many categories. No matter what your goals, whether they be personal, financial, with your relationships, spiritual, or in business, I believe you will be much more successful if you aim to eliminate any “buts.”
What do I mean? I suggest that as you strive for greatness, you do so in the most complete way. This means no areas of compromise. You cannot have any flaws that are big enough to stand out and detract from all of your other strengths.
Let me give some examples. Have you ever been in a restaurant where the food was great, the atmosphere was incredible, but the service was terrible? When asked about your experience, you list a whole bunch of positives, then end with a sentence that starts with but. “I had the best salad, a perfectly cooked steak, the place was so well decorated, and it had a great vibe, BUT our server was slow and never came back to check on us.”
How about a person you deal with in business? “They are so smart, they get the best pricing, they have the best products, BUT they never return calls.”
And I know you all can relate to the contractor who does great work, has a super talented crew, can build anything, BUT disappears for days in the middle of your project.
It is so important to function in every area of your life in a way that avoids giving others the need to end any descriptive sentence with the use of the word but. You can take pride in all of the good you do, all of your strengths, and all of your accomplishments, but your impact gets crushed the moment someone adds that but.
In an office like ours, we love when patients rave about the results they get, the friendliness and caring nature of our staff, and the way we make care affordable even if you do not have insurance. As powerful and attractive as those qualities are to potential patients, as they hear about those things from an existing patient, their excitement and enthusiasm would fizzle the moment that patient says but. Because no matter how well we did those things, it would not matter if we always screwed up the billing, had a filthy office, or made patients wait too long.
I hear patients complain about other offices in this way all too often. And I always think about how sad it is that those offices do so much so well, but all that good, hard work goes by the wayside because of one or two weaknesses that stand out to patients. It happens in businesses, friendships, marriages, and any other area of life.
So, when I review different aspects of my life, I try to find any buts that might be hindering the quality of those areas. If there are any, then those are the areas that I try to work on.
Can you do it in a way where you have no shortcomings? I believe you can. Sure, you will always have some areas where you are weaker or stronger, but the key is to not allow any area be SO weak that it becomes something that others bring up when discussing you.
In addition to working to reduce the buts in your life, work to get more ands added. Just imagine… after someone praises you to someone else with a few lines of greatness, just when the listener can’t imagine you being any better, they use the word and, to add one more amazing characteristic. Instead of ending on a negative by stating a weakness, they add another positive. They have nothing negative to say. Wow! Isn’t that what we would all want?
By eliminating the buts and adding more ands in your life, you’ll see better results in business, stronger relationships with friends, a tighter bond with your spouse, an overall higher quality of life, and a better sense of self-worth. Think about what buts are holding you back. Now start working to eliminate them.
