For most businesses, the first week in January is not the start of a New Year – It’s simply the chance to live the same old year over and over and over again!
They carry on investing their time and money in all the wrong places and thus, they get the same kind of results. Such businesses reach a plateau after a few years and tend to stay there. Like a truck that’s stuck in the mud, the harder they try the deeper they seem to get trapped.
The owners of these businesses complain about their lack of results, but fail to make the changes required for success. This fear of change is what psychologists refer to as The Homoeostatic impulse. It’s best demonstrated in the human desire for things to “be the same – but better.” However, as we all know, improvement can only come as the result of change. Things don’t “just magically get better” – we have to make them better.
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!
So, as we enter the first full working week of 2009, let’s embrace the opportunity to learn from what we did in 2008.
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Good points, Jim.
No wonder you have such a great following.
My clients (and my personal Businesses) only look at the past Year in reflection of what WAS, not what will be.
After studying the past, it is set aside and ONLY NEW Innovative CREATIVE ideas are discussed and Implemented Immediately.
May be that is why market vagaries have not affected us over the past 5 decades.
I enjoy your commentary and share it with others
Thanks for posting. Great article.
PS- I like the twitter feature on comments.
Have a great day!
Edward Brown
http://www.edwardsmoneyblog.tk
So true Jim.
I saw a post bu Seth Godin where he talked about if you thought everything with your business is okay. If you think everything is ok then you are not taking chances and pushing yourself forward.
Managers strive for “okay” business owners need to strive for more.
I searched for “Homeostatic Impulse” and google gave me around 100 results. Hardly what would qualify it as a term that “psychologists refer to as”. Let’s leave psycologists out of it in the future, shall we?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word
Aris,
You seem to have searched for the exact term – rather than the key word; ‘Homeostatic’.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homeostatic
The term ‘Homeostatic’ is what refers to the condition mentioned above. It also has around three quarters of a million references on Google.
Like the idea of weasel words though – nice share!
Agreed that ‘homeostatic’ is indeed a word with a general meaning of its own. I also agree with your post. Indeed, change is the only thing that can drive change apart from sheer luck! Much like evolution, a lot has to do with adaptation but mutation is also an essential mechanism, adding the random element in the process of change. “The Dice Man” rings a bell?
Happy 2009 to you and your readers!
PS. Talking of weasels, did you know they make coffee out of coffee beans regurgitated by weasels? Click my name through.