Barbara was stressed to the max. There was always so much to do in too little time, and it seemed like no one else did anything right. When asked what some of her basic beliefs about success in life were, she quickly said "Small leaks sink big ships." Her daily activities emphasized the critical importance of not letting any detail in her personal or professional life slip by unchecked. And, she worked endless hours, stayed up at night with anxiety, and left people around her feeling that they were never good enough for her, so her friends often moved on.

But weve all heard this saying, and many of us live by it. Some of us have suffered by overlooking small details, but then when we try to be extra-diligent, we end up being controlling and stressed. Are the small leaks important or not? And most importantly, is there a secret to keeping our big ships afloat without being a total stress case and wasting time? Good news. Yes, there is a secret.

Its not the leaks that are the real danger, its the time, money and stress that we devote to them that is the real offender. The key to avoiding unwanted, major consequences is perspective and paradigm. You see, the ship metaphor is wrong! Small leaks dont sink big ships. Accumulation of excessive water in the hull of a big ship is what sinks it. And so it is with many other areas of business and life. The accumulation of excessive water in a ship is by no means a small detail. It may have been caused by numerous small leaks, but they are not the real problem. Its the water thats the problem. By shifting our perspective, we can dramatically change the situation. If we believe that small leaks sink the ship, then to prevent sinking we must continuously inspect the hull, inch by inch, for small leaks. And, if we find any, we must fix them. What if there are 10,000 rivets holding together the hull of a ship and many of them leak a tiny bit of water? Well, we end up spending all our time searching for leaky rivets and trying to patch them.

Now, lets shift our perspective, shift our paradigm. Forget about the rivets and small leaks, and lets just look for excessive accumulation of water. Thats pretty easy to spot, so we dont need to check for it that often (after all, if it comes from small leaks, it wont all of a sudden come pouring in it will be very gradual over time). The result is, we have lots of resources (time, money & energy) free to do other things. Next, if excessive water does accumulate, we have many more options available.

First, know your goal clearly, and state it in the positive. Our goal is to keep the hull of the ship relatively dry. We can do this by having an effective system of bilge pumps that pumps out accumulated water from the hull, we can decide its fine for the time being and wait until we get to port and then have it drained, we can have 50 sailors with buckets bail it out, and oh yes, we can still seal leaky rivets. Notice how our possible solutions expanded tremendously by focusing on what we really wanted (a dry ship) instead of the problem (small leaks around rivets).

Okay, so now lets take this back to real life. Lets say I have a company that makes clocks you know, the kind you buy at some mega-store for $15. The companys chief design engineer, who worries a great deal about leaks, might emphasize how we must take every precaution in designing and manufacturing our clocks to be perfectly accurate. After all, he says, if our clocks are not always accurate, people may miss critical appointments in their life and our companys reputation would be tarnished; no one would want to buy clocks from us anymore. As a result, he suggests a number of rather expensive and time-consuming steps the company should take to ensure that the clocks design and manufacture is such that they will always have near perfect accuracy. The problem is, hes focused on the small leaks. Theyre not the problem. In fact, there may not even be a problem.

Heres the deal. The real goal is to have a decent reputation and continue to sell clocks. A strategy focused on this might be including a money-back guarantee with each clock, thus if someone is upset with the clock, they get a refund. It could mean that if lots of people complain about the clocks being inaccurate, then we figure out why, and we send them new clocks. It could also turn out that people recognize that they got the clock from K-mart for $15, and they feel they got what they paid for. And maybe, no one even notices or cares what brand it is. By focusing on what we really want, weve saved a great deal of money, work and worry.

So, in summary, its not the small leaks that sink big ships, it is the accumulated results of leaks (small or big) that we care about. First, clearly define what you really want (not the cause). Also, dont waste energy on trying to anticipate problems that dont exist and may never exist (80% of them will never happen). Next, take action focused on the desired goal. Thats it. And remember, forget about the small leaks its not the leaks that are the real danger, its the time, money and stress that you devote to them that is the real culprit.

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