I have a passion for small business and I love – absolutely love – helping people get results in their business.
The most important question we need to use more in our business and in our lives.
I’ve been reading and listening to Brené Brown’s new book, Rising Strong, and I’ve done a blog about Bad Assery I In Your Life and Business, but now there is another topic I want to share with you…
In Rising Strong, she shares with us a time that she was asked to speak at a conference. She says yes to this engagement because she feels obligated – not because she wants to. She has to share a room with another speaker at the conference and she hates sharing a room. That person has some nasty personal habits that makes rooming with them even more difficult. It creates a whole situation of judgment and discomfort for Brené.
She comes to a point in the book where she describes a conversation with her husband. The conversation leads her to wonder what if she asked this one question. A single question that she asked herself of everyone she comes into contact with.
What if that person is doing the best the can?
Would I feel the way I feel about my experience with them if I knew with certainty that they were doing the absolute best they were capable of in that moment?
Think for a moment of someone who bothers you right now. Someone who is irritating you and their behavior is making you crazy in your business or your personal life and you just don’t get it.
Ask yourself – if you knew with 100% certainty that they were doing the absolute best they could, would you still feel the same way?
This question rattles around in my head even further because I start to reflect it back at myself.
Am I doing the best that I can? Am I really, really, really doing the best I am capable of?
In sending out copies of Pilot To Profit: Navigating Modern Entrepreneurship to Build Your Business Using Online Marketing, Social Media, Content Marketing and Sales, I have been signing the books with, “Live your true potential.” We all have potential inside of us that is far greater than we ever attempt to live. Our effort pales in comparison to our true potential.
When we ask Brené’s question of others we are using it to reframe our perceptions of them. When we ask it of ourselves if we’re really doing the best we can, and if we’re honest with ourselves, we can make adjustments to improve things for our business and ourselves.
Leave a comment below and let me know, on a scale of 1 to 10, how did you do yesterday – did you do the absolute best you could for the day?
Watch the Periscope replay on Katch for more about how The Most Important Business Question can be applied to our work and ourselves.
