Choices

Boy, would I like to have known then what I know now!

Have you ever said that statement to yourself? If yes, what would you change?

I probably would have been a healthier eater, maybe saved more when I was younger, valued time with my parents more while they were still alive, and maybe tens of other things! Some people have told me they would have treated their spouse better, loved their children unconditionally, not taken drugs, smoked, etc.

My children have heard me talk about these regrets, and even though they are incredible kids, they still choose to eat more poorly than they should or not save for the future as much as I would like.

I even think they know there will be consequences later in their lifetime due to some of these choices.

So, I question: if we know all of this why do we still fail to follow through?

Maybe knowing is not the same as doing?

Is it possible that that we sometimes doubt what we cannot see?

Do we give less importance to things that are not currently impacting our lives?

Do we doubt that if we smoke now, we have an increased chance developing lung cancer later? Do we doubt that if we take drugs it could have a negative impact on our body as we age? Do we doubt if we fail to save money when we are young, that we will run the risk of not having enough to retire comfortably? Do we doubt that there is a God because we cannot see him in the flesh?

One of the more difficult challenges I faced as a leader was to be able to teach this exact point. It was difficult to paint a picture of what success looked like 2, 3, 5 years down the road to some team members. I mean most of the time, it was difficult asking folks to see 12 months out!

I can remember years that started slowly due to winter weather or poor performance. I would lose sleep deciding when to “break the glass” and resort to cost-cutting measures in order to re-align our expenses with our revenue. Most of the time, this was done in late spring when we still had 5-7 months to “save the year” and meet our stakeholder expectations.

Many staff members struggled making these difficult adjustments so early in the year with me. They wanted to wait until November or December. But I knew it would be too late if we didn’t adjust earlier. There would just not be enough time to overcome our missteps from earlier in the year.

Some of the severe consequences of not overcoming could be diminished raises, reduced insurance contributions, the closing of under-performing offices, salary reductions or, at last resort, rightsizing.

As a company, we needed to be able to look ahead and realize that the clock was ticking and we would run out of time unless we did the right thing mid-year. In other words, “Even though it was overcast in March, unless we acted, it would be a very stormy December.” This seems to be consistent with our personal lives. We can run out of time.

Dave Ramsey is a nationally recognized expert on personal finance, and I was fortunate to have studied under him very early on in his career. He has a great line that reads: “Live like no one else today so that you can live like no one else tomorrow.”

I take that to mean that I need to do the right things today (which are usually the hardest things) in order to live the life I want on this earth and in heaven later. I need to remember that my choices today will have positive or negative consequences tomorrow.

This is hard stuff. There is that little voice in our head that tells us to indulge now, live for today, do what feels good. But we are not alone in this battle. With support and encouragement from friends and family and from our God, we can make the right decisions.

Thanks for reading this and have a great weekend.

Glen Cavallo is a 30+ year healthcare executive that has chosen to share the many lessons he has learned with others. Glen provides inspirational keynote speeches at regional, annual and awards meetings, serves in advisory and board positions for companies and helps to mentor and coach leaders in all areas of business.