Sharpening your tools

Yesterday I had to complete an application form to transfer all my utilities, (i.e. gas, electric, phone, broadband and mobile), to another provider.  I was doing it for a number of reasons.  Firstly (and the main reason really), is that I've just started a new business, my part-time fortune maker I call it because it is a way to make money for the future now whilst I am busy growing my main business.  It turns out that world domination in my chosen niche is going to take somewhat longer than I thought.  I won't bore you with the details of my new business at this point; however, if your curiosity is getting the better of you, please message me and I will book a time with you to go over it.  (Did you notice that seamless lead capture?).  

I was saying, I'm transferring my utilities and so I had to complete this application form.  I absolutely hate application forms at the best of times. The vast majority require you to write in very small boxes, which (a) are always too short for the number of characters that you need to write down. Therefore, you end up writing on the space beside the squares, squashing in the letters or numbers like dead ants lined up in a mass grave.  (b) The print is always too small for me to read without my glasses and I have a real resistance to wearing my glasses.  

I think if I needed to wear them continuously I wouldn't mind, but as I only need them for reading, it's the constant on and off that gets me.  I can't keep them on all the time because I can't see the rest of the world properly when I am wearing them and every time I take them off, it takes about 20 seconds for my eyes to readjust.  

I know you are thinking vari or bifocals, so was I.  The last time I got my eyes tested I had meant to ask for vari-focal or bifocals lenses, however, I was so taken aback by the cost of my glasses without any of the add-ons, (i.e. scratch protection, tinted glass, thinner than bottle top lenses, etc), I clean forgot.  So much for their “special offers”!  I think special offers are only special because the company promoting them are impressed at just how well they have repackaged the thing they have always sold to you at the same price it has always been.  What's "special" is you for not realising it!

So not being able to see small print and having to write in small boxes, puts me off completing application forms.  My default position is “can I do it online?”  Could I, yes – but only if I didn't need X plus Y plus Z and I did, so back to the form.  

People who make up these forms do so from the land of inside their own head.  You know that place; the place where everything in the world makes perfect sense to you, after all it is your world why wouldn't it?  Unfortunately you didn't provide the phrasebook to translate your thoughts into everyone else's.  Just because it makes sense to you, doesn't mean it will make sense to anyone else.  I found myself having to look up near enough every question for the explanation of what it meant, either online or by phoning customer services; who were very nice to me (and we are now dating – we spent that much time together).

I confess I am a creature of habit.  I tell myself that I am open to change and I am good at managing change, when actually what I really mean is: if someone else makes a change which I have no choice about, then I am very good at dealing with the new circumstances and adjusting my emotions, thoughts and behaviours accordingly.  However I'm really quite set in my ways and will stay with what I have so long as I believe it serves me. 

I wasn't always like this.  It must be an age thing.  There was a time when I would regularly move the furniture around so that my environment was constantly new and different: regularly = every three months.  The younger me was constantly looking for new experiences just for the sake of it. Now I'm just old and set in my ways.  

Consequently my resistance to changing the familiar meant that I had to check and recheck all the details to ensure that I wasn’t jumping out of the fat into the fire. “Okay so they say it's the cheapest, is it?”  (Remember the special offer trick) back and forth between various websites checking deals, conditions, small print etc until I was finally satisfied that switching everything made sense and I'd put all the right information in the right places.

However the form was a mess – but completed and it had only taken me...  All day!  Admittedly, I went to two meetings; posted my blog; cooked dinner for the kids (they're really good at the “I'm- starving –to- death –please- feed- me- mum” look; entertain my mother who drop by for a visit and check my social media as well; but the day was still done by the time I had finished.

Naturally I started to beat myself up about how inefficient and unfocused I can be.  However, on reflection I think that I was simply sharpening my tools.  Do you remember that I said I was changing my services over as part of my new business?  Well I am going to have to complete these forms for other people and therefore, it follows that I need to be completely congruent with what I'm doing.  This exercise was about me embedding the knowledge required to be able to confidently deal with all enquiries and checking that the "special offer" was indeed a benefit that I would be comfortable and happy offering.

Sharp tools work so much better than blunt ones.  We all know this; however, every so often it’s worth experiencing it in reality, to appreciate the metaphor when applied to your life.  So try this:

    

Take a knife that you've had for a while and not sharpened recently or perhaps ever (obviously, if you've got one of those “stay sharp for life” knives don't use that one – although having bought one, I think that's another "special offer") and cut something with it like meat or fish or a tomato or an onion.  Notice the experience.  It cuts but the cut edge is tatty, it takes effort and you have to apply a good deal of pressure to the sawing action to cut through the object.

Now sharpen your knife or swap it for a very sharp one and try cutting your food again.  Notice the difference. How effortlessly sharp knives cut through things and how clean the cut edge is.

Yesterday was about honing my skills.  I didn't realise that’s what I was doing at the time and I felt quite ineffective when I noticed how long it was taking me to complete what should have been a straightforward task.  However, I now know everything I have to know about the form, the service, etc.  The next form I complete with a client should take me about 20 min.  I'm glad I sharpened my tools.  It's quite a confidence booster.

How do you make sure the tools you need are sharp? Please share your thoughts I always look forward to reading them.

image:Chopped Tomatoes by Paul