Breakdowns:
What to do when things don't go your way... Handling the interuptions in what you had planned.

Breakdown - a definition: an interruption in what you had planned.

When your car gets a flat tire on your way to Grandma's, you call it a breakdown. (Note that if your car gets a flat in the garage, you do not call it a breakdown.) What's special about this kind of breakdown is that you call attention to it. You make a formal declaration of your breakdown. You say—I'm having a breakdown with such-and-such.

Perhaps you aren't making progress in an area, or you aren't moving fast enough. Maybe your results are just different from what you expected, or things are plain off track.

Since this is not unfamiliar territory, let's add a little twist. This kind of breakdown is not really a bad thing. An acquaintance of mine had the saying, “Breakdowns lead to breakthroughs,” and you can expect to have them from time to time. In fact, if you are not experiencing breakdowns on a semi-regular basis, what you are doing isn't much of a stretch.

Notice I didn't say a breakdown is when things go wrong.

Breakdowns are not problems—they are just you not getting the results you planned, when you planned for them.

Train yourself to make formal declarations of breakdowns: “There is a breakdown in such-and-such.” This gives you a chance to stop the action, take a breath, see what's up, and invent what to do next. That's different from—“Uh-oh, somebody must have screwed up....” Or, “Things are all messed up. I hope no one finds out.”, and “How can we get out of this.”

People normally keep it to themselves when they notice things aren't going the way they think they should be going. This only makes matters worse. If things are off track and nothing gets done about it for a while, does that usually make matters better or worse? Wouldn't you rather “come clean” immediately and figure out what to do about it? In the breakdown process no one is blamed or found lacking.

Being off course isn't personal, it's just off course.

Declaring a breakdown is also a chance to reexamine how you are doing things, and tweak the process from time to time.

Train the people you work with to use breakdowns. Let them know breakdowns are OK—that you won't hit them over the head or shame them in public. Declare breakdowns quickly so you have a way to get back on course quickly. This is one of the secrets to getting where you want to go quickly.

This is a key to becoming unstoppable.

THE BREAKDOWN PROCESS

Here's a simple process to follow when you notice you aren't making progress in an area, or are otherwise off course.

Use the following or similar words: “There is a breakdown in such and such.”

• Describe the facts of the situation. What happened, exactly. Leave out what you think was good and what was bad, and all your justifications about why you let things get that way. Stick to the facts.
• What were you trying to accomplish that got interrupted? What precisely is off track. Are you still committed to that?
• What are the objectives and measures for realizing that commitment? (These can be the same as before or all new ones.)
• Design actions that will have you meet those objectives.
• Get back in action.

Simple as changing a flat. And just as effective in getting you moving again.

Paul Lemberg's clients call him "the unreasonable business coach" because he insists they pursue goals and take actions far outside their comfort zone to make more money than they previously thought possible. He is the co-founder and President of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world's only fully systemized business coaching program designed from the ground up to rapidly create more profits and more life for entrepreneurs.