In a perfect world, every decision you need to make would be obvious. One option that feels great feels right feels easy. versus another option. That's clearly the wrong choice. But being CEO means you've delegated most of the easy decisions, and the ones that escalate to you are often the tough ones. The not so straightforward ones, the decisions between two options that both feel uncomfortable, decisions where there are consequences on both sides, decisions where you're so close to it that it's hard to be objective, decisions where there isn't a right or wrong answer. Decisions like whether to postpone a 200k launch, let a team member go, partner with a potential competitor, release a client from their contract, sunset an entire program, give difficult feedback. These are a few examples of the decisions that I've worked through with my clients just for the last few weeks. I'm there to provide decision support for them, helping them look at things objectively and equipping them to make the decisions for themselves. Now there are a lot of factors to consider when making a decision. But there are three perspectives that I often bring to the table that I want to share with you today. The first is which decision is most aligned with your values. When decisions aren't black and white, I find that one of the best ways to find clarity and the gray areas is to go back to your values. This is why I recommend that every client of mine define their business values, they become a filter to run decisions through. And what's interesting about this is the same scenario posed to two different clients may yield a different decision if their values are different. And that's also why asking others for their opinions isn't always helpful. They might make recommendations based on their values instead of asking you what your values are. This perspective guides you to hold yourself accountable for staying in integrity and showing up authentically, sometimes, even at the cost of your own gain. But that's what values are all about.

Right? Let's look at an example. Let's say one of your team members doesn't follow the directions that you've given them in order to get a result. And instead they try something brand new, and they fail. If one of your company values is innovation, this might be celebrated, even though the failure is uncomfortable, right. Whereas if the company value is consistency, then this may require an uncomfortable conversation to get realigned on values and expectations. You see how helpful it is to bring values to the conversation. There's discomfort on both sides, but values helped make it clear. The next perspective I often bring is which decision will lead to the most personal growth. And is that growth in an area that will take the business further. Sometimes you're torn between two options because one brings more uncertainty, or you have less confidence. But the only way to bring clarity or build confidence is by taking action. If you're trying to decide whether to take on more one to one clients, or launch a group program, maybe the one to one clients is something you've done countless times before, but feels uncomfortable because of the time commitment, it's going to add a lot more to your plate to take on one to one clients, compared to maybe a group program that something that will leverage your time but it's uncomfortable in its own way because you've never done it before. The revenue feels less certain. And there's so much that you don't yet know about how to run a group program. Which one would be your area of growth. If you have a steady base of revenue, and you're scared to do something new, and so you're going back to one to one because that's what feels safe and easy, then maybe the group program is your area of growth. If you're trying to rush the transition from one to one to group coaching, however, and maybe staying put and developing patients, maybe slowing down is the area of growth for you because you keep changing things in your business all the time. Then maybe that's what you need to do. Slow down and stay the course.

So look at where your growth will be found. The third perspective comes into play when there are two very uncomfortable options. And a lot of people choose the option with less discomfort, short term, and more discomfort long term. They may not think about that long term discomfort because they are so focused on the short term. And so I want you to ask which decision moves you closer to your long term vision. A perspective that I want you to consider is which discomfort takes you in the direction towards that vision. So not just which decision but which just comfort takes you in that direction. Short term discomfort will be worth it, if it will help you achieve your long term vision. That is sacrificing your long term vision really worth short term comfort. Let's look at an example. Let's say that you have a launch coming up that will generate over 100k for your business. Maybe your team is over capacity, maybe it's past time that you needed to hire. The only problem is that when you look at the next quarter, you know that your team doesn't have the capacity to hire on board and train new team members while also executing the launch. So you're faced with a decision? Do you push your team risking burnout so that you don't sacrifice revenue? Or do you push the launch and take the time that you need to hire an onboarding, to also ramp up for an even bigger launch later? It depends. It's uncomfortable to execute the launch without extra help. But it's also uncomfortable to commit to hiring without the revenue you're counting on from the launch, which one sets you up for long term success. The answer for this one may be found by digging into your financials, you'll need to get some clarity there. The long term success may be holding out on that help to keep a stronger profit margin now. Or if you've got the profit and the bandwidth to hire financially, then maybe you push the launch and spend the time in the short term hiring and onboarding to ramp up for later. So you can see that when you face decisions with discomfort either way, you have to choose your discomfort. You have to choose which discomfort you will live with right. And I encourage you to choose the discomfort that's aligned with your values that will lead to your personal growth and will move you closer to your vision.