Stop This Merry-go-round...

...and let me off or I’m going to PUKE!

I asked a friend the other day who’s the President of a DMO at a well known international destination if she felt in control. She asked, “In control of what?”

“How about work or your life?” Her reply: “Unfortunately, work is my life and no, I’m not in control of it.”

I sense our business is full of very talented people who are frozen in debilitating fear that spreads terror, dread, and trepidation, causing the brain to retreat into this grey cloud of uncertainly. Every day seems like a constant struggle of dissatisfaction, despite a life time of worldly achievements.

My friend continued,

‘I feel disconnected from my job, my board, my co-workers. When I walk down the beach and look at our visitors, I think to myself, “I used to know who you were, where you were from, what you liked, how long you were going to stay, how much you were going to spend, and where I could reach you.”  

'Now it feels like I don’t know anything. Tax revenues off 40%, the old way of doing stuff isn’t working, the hype from every pro-ported marketing guru is burying me in data, suggesting I pull out all the stakes we’ve spent millions of dollars and years to plant and dump it in a dozen different places that I’ve never heard of and trust some social media contacts who are a friend of a friend and may or may not say, “Hey! Why don’t you go to her beach for a vacation?”’

As her words sank in, I was stunned and depressed.

I easily slipped into an affiliation and then an assumption of her feelings. They felt horrible. I wondered if there there was a way to shed this mindset of fear, not just for myself, but anyone else locked in this prison. Could it be done without Prozac or some other serotonin active drug?

I regret to admit that it took me a week to sort my way through all this stuff. The catalyst for the elixir was an anonymous quote:

“Living is tearing up one rough draft after another.”

Reflecting on this, I thought of five things that I could offer her that can bring perspective.

1. Problems need to be viewed from a holistic point of view across time, not from a single point
2. Every problem already contains its solution: in other words, it’s not the problem, it’s our way of thinking about it
3. Integration is key to simplifying complexity
4. A strong platform of research is critical - its hard to argue with the facts
5. The key to connecting with customers is still an emotional story, regardless of what the number crunchers might tell you.

I feel better already.