View from the Summit

Are you trying to do too many things at once right now?

Many entrepreneurs tell me they are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and harried in their day-to-day lives. One of the first things I usually ask them is “Are you doing too much?” The reason I ask this is because I know how it feels to have your concentration fragmented and how difficult it is to stay on top of multiple initiatives at the same time.

Have you ever heard the story of Buridan’s A**? The short version is that a donkey who was both hungry and thirsty was placed between a bale of hay and a bucket of water. Being equally hungry and thirsty, and being equidistant from the hay and the water, the donkey couldn’t make a rational choice of which form of sustenance to select. The donkey dies of both hunger and thirst because he couldn’t choose whether to eat the food or drink the water first.

When you compare yourself to another entrepreneur, whether on a monetary scale, experience, or scope, you may come away feeling inadequate. Comparisons of this sort are dangerous because when you feel like another individual is ahead of you in some aspect, feelings of jealousy, bitterness, and inadequacy can creep in quickly. Compare yourself closely to someone at the top of your industry and your confidence might take a hit. Conversely, if you compare yourself to others who you know you are ahead of in your field, you open the door for pride, boasting, and complacency. Entrepreneur and author Jack Canfield once said of making comparisons “I generally find that comparison is the fast track to unhappiness. No one ever compares themselves to someone else and comes out even. Nine times out of ten, we compare ourselves to people who are somehow better than us and end up feeling more inadequate.”

What does it mean to “Lean In”? Are we able to recognize important “Lean In” moments in our lives?