Last week I made a quick trip to the grocery store for yogurt to make my smoothies.
But before heading to the checkout, I stopped by my favorite section, the Manager’s Special meat case. I try to save on protein whenever possible.
If you’ve ever shopped that section, you totally understand where I’m coming from. It’s where you find meat that’s running out of time and so the store puts them on a discount to get them out.
This time I found flank steak marked down from $13.99/lb to $9.99/lb. (Still pricey and that’s because flank steak is still cheaper than most cuts of beef). I just had to use it or freeze it within a day.
I already had some meal prep in the fridge for the rest of the week and had no reason to cook it right away.
So I froze it.
Four days later, Sunday night’s dinner was fajitas. After a little preparation, a balsamic marinade and some seasoning, you wouldn’t even know that it came from the Manager’s Special. It was the ultimate premium meal at a bargain price. Value delivered.
The funny thing is, I never felt guilty that the steak sat in my freezer for some time, or thought that I wasted money because I’ll never get to it.
I knew I was saving it for the right moment.
Yet, many of us don’t extend that same grace to ourselves when it comes to our goals and business opportunities.
Instead, we rush and treat everything as an immediate crisis. Why is it that we allow every minor request or idea to hijack our schedule?
Not everything needs to be used today.
Some projects need to be parked and some opportunities need to wait until we have the time and resources to make the most of them.
I sometimes get caught up in that too. We need to be more aware about what deserves our attention now and what can be “frozen” for later.
So this is how I looked at it. The steak didn’t lose one ounce of value sitting in the freezer. This same logic applies to our business pipeline. I think if I had gone home and rushed to cook that steak, it wouldn’t have come out as good. It was after a long day’s work and I was already exhausted.
I hate being in a feeling of constant urgency. It does nothing but crush my creativity and potential. I’ve always believed that constant urgency is a false metric. It gives us that busy feeling without any measurable productivity. I much rather focus on impact over speed.
Final Thoughts
So, not everything requires a rush. I think a strategic move or practice is protecting a great opportunity until we have the bandwidth to execute it perfectly. As leaders, our job isn’t to act on every opportunity. Especially if it’s not the right time.
Sometimes when we wait, that allows something great to happen. My deliciously delicious Fajita dish is a testament to that.
Shamayne Brown is a virtual assistant and the founder of Camp Virtual Assistance.
She works with busy executives and solo professionals who are ready to invest in their business and need the support that she offers.
She specializes in creating email newsletters as well as other admin and creative design tasks.
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