Here is week 5 of the 5 Mega-Realities:
1. Population growth
2. An expanding volume of knowledge
3. Mass media growth and electronic addiction
4. The paper trail culture
5. An overabundance of choices
This final segment is about an overabundance of choices and a few life saving tips that you can apply.
(Taken in part from "Get a Life! Living and Working at a Comfortable Pace in a High-Speed World".)
#5 - An Overabundance of Choices
In his 1969 book, Future Shock, Alvin Toffler predicted that we would become slaves to an overabundance of choices. Toffler described how more choices inhibited action, resulting in greater anxiety and the feeling of less time.
Like too much of anything else, having too many choices is harmful to having a balanced life. Every decision you make drains you of time and energy. After a long day of deciding about breakfast cereals, office and consumer products, investment options, vacation choices, late
night TV shows and everything in between, who has the energy left to decide what they really want out of life?
Life Savers:
Don't get distracted by outside options. Sometimes the sweetest choice is choosing from what you already have.
What good friends have you barely seen in recent months?
What special person wants to have more fun with you now?
What favorite priority have you been ignoring?
These are the choices that matter!
When you catch yourself making a low level decision, consider: does this really make a difference? Make only a few decisions a day - the ones that count.
It is the "abundance of choices" that leverages your referability. The proliferation of choices makes it difficult for anyone to make a decision. Too many choices is overwhelming.
It causes confusion, not clarity.
We already have enough confusion in our lives.
Look at it this way:
Your family Doctor decides to retire out of state and close his practice. You now need to find
a new health care provider for your family. What do you do? You can go online and search out Doctors in your area. You can go to 1-800-doctor to get a list of Doctors that you can call. You could end up with a list of Doctors a mile long. Now who do you call and how do you determine
if they are good for you and your family?
You ask!
You ask a friend. That's right, you bypass the proliferation of choices and rely upon the referral of people you know, you like and you trust.
This process today applies to most of the professional services you might bring into your home.
Try this:
List the last 10 services you brought into your home over the past year.
Roofer, painter, mason, carpet cleaner, landscaper, etc.
Now look at the list and tell me "where did you get them from?"
In all probability you got 7 out of 10 from either someone you already knew or from a recommendation of someone you know. That's how we are introduced to new businesses every day - by referral!
The over abundance of choices can be very overwhelming but it is the single greatest factor that determines your refer-ability in today's fast paced, high speed, over informed, over scheduled, and seemingly out of control world we live in.
We ask people we know, we like, we trust.
If there was ever a good reason for a constant contact to your database sphere of influence this is it!
The Mega-Realities and Your Life
The 5 Mega-Realities are here to stay, but the don't have to run your life. On a deeply-felt personal level, recognize that from now on you're going to encounter an ever-increasing number of items and activities competing for your attention. You can't handle everything, so stop trying.
Discover the freedom and peace of mind that comes from saying "no" to passing distractions.
To really get a life, stick with your priorities.
the best is yet to be!
Jeffrey Stanton
Your Trusted Advisor For Life
One of the fastest ways to build a successful referral based business is by training. Now, with me, I like to invest significant time immersing myself in training, while some people prefer to take it in bite-size chunks. Whatever your preference is, now is the best time to contact me.
If you have found this tip useful, please share it with any friends, family, colleagues and associates who you think will be interested. Feel free to print it (with credit and subscription information) and continue to enjoy the tips. I am always grateful for any comments, criticisms or other feedback that you may have. Please send them to feedback@jeffreysjournal.com
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