When You Need to Get Hit By a Bus

A colleague recently had a family medical crisis, and was amazed at the clarity that this brought to his life. This guy is a passionate business owner and a bit of a workaholic. He confesses to always feeling a bit behind, certain that without his daily presence his "business would go to hell."

In the midst of the crisis, all the niggling details at work fell away, and he was amazed that "people just handled it." As the family pulled together to deal with the crisis, he found himself turning off his cellphone and ignoring the constant stream of emails, for hours and even days at a time. When he did check messages, he was amazed at how quickly he was able to evaluate which phone calls and issues he truly needed to handle, and which could be left for another day, another week.

In managing our time and our business, we talk about prioritizing, and planning, and doing the right thing. But sometimes, we need a crisis to drag us away, to give us time to think, to detach from the daily churn.We often worry about getting hit by the proverbial bus - the unexpected catastrophe that takes us out of the business. But sometimes, there's nothing better than getting hit by some virtual bus, some crisis that gives us clarity about what is truly important.