What nail are you sitting on?

There’s a story about an old dog who sits on a porch, letting out the occasional moan.

A man walking by asks the owner, “Why’s your dog making that sound?”

The owner says, “He’s sitting on a nail.”

“Then why doesn’t he move?”

The owner shrugs. “It’s not painful enough yet.”

Most of us are that dog.

We complain about a slow manager, a broken system, a toxic client or a declining margin. But we don’t move. Not because we’re lazy, but because it hasn’t hurt enough to force us to change.

The danger is that we build a high pain tolerance in business.

We get used to underperformance.

We rationalise mediocrity.

And we gradually accept lower standards as “the cost of doing business.”

Before we know it, we’re that old dog sitting on a nail for years.

But the people who succeed the fastest don’t wait for the real pain; they manufacture it.

They raise the stakes before the market does and create artificial urgency; a deadline, a public commitment, a mental picture of what failure will cost them.

They escalate mild discomfort and use it as fuel, not feedback.

Michael Jordan was famous for this.

He’d invent all sorts of wacky reasons in his head to drive massive action. He’d take comments personally, get fired up by a media article, spin a story about a weird look from a rival coach and even misinterpret a look from another player on purpose.

He knew that comfort killed his edge, so we manufactured a crisis in his mind to drive big action.

Knowing all this, I’ve got a question for you:

What nail are you sitting on right now, and how can you turn that discomfort into action before it turns into damage?

We both know that pain is inevitable.

But progress is optional.

Sometimes you don’t need an epic crisis, just the courage to act like it’s already here.

I’m sure you’d agree that the results would be pretty awesome. 

I hope this hits. 

Take care and have a great week.