Patience Is A Virtue

Have you ever painted your nails and looked at the drying time as a suggestion...not as a true fact?

Me. Every single time.

I don’t consider myself super materialistic, but dang it if I don’t feel good when my nails are done. A pair of heels and my nails done - watch out world, I’m here to conquer it!

While I love having my nails done, I don’t love spending the money just to have them become super sensitive and destroyed, nor do I want to fit an appointment into my schedule. Call it what it is, I just can’t justify it!

So, Instagram did a great job with their ads as I kept seeing Olive & June, a home manicure set. Sean asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I sent him the link. Bam. Done. Good nails here I come!

I tore into the box right away! The branding was incredible, it came with everything I needed, and it had step-by-step instructions. You can’t mess it up and your polish should last a solid 7 days.

Well, mine lasted about 5 solid days and I’m sure you can guess why.

Step 5 stated to wait 5-10 minutes between coasts for drying time. Well, I just wanted them finished so I could go to bed, so I chose to do 2-3 minutes. I knew 5-10 was necessary, but I thought my time limit would be “good enough”.

Step 7 stated that you’re supposed to reapply the topcoat every 2 days so that it would keep the polish on...I did it once.

So, was I surprised that it only lasted 5 solid days (which is longer than the typical polish I use, and they were just barely chipped)? Not at all.

Was I annoyed with myself that I wasn’t patient enough or a little lazy on the topcoat? Absolutely.

I obviously couldn’t be mad at the company as they sent the step-by-step instructions!

Did I slow my roll the next application...while it felt like forever in between coats...yes.

Okay, by now you may be wondering, WTF does this have to do with business?

Well, I’d love for you to ponder the question, has there ever been a time where you knew you skipped some foundation steps and when the outcome didn’t meet your expectations, you were annoyed?

Maybe you rushed through a course where you gave half-assed effort and when you applied what you learned you got annoyed because “it didn’t work”.

Or maybe you threw up 4 social media posts over a 2-week span and when you didn’t get any purchases you gave up because “it didn't work”.

At times I find myself being extremely impatient with my business journey. I want to rush through to be 13 steps farther than I am and because I want to be there now. But, that’s not how it works.

There are steps you have to take to start. There are steps you have to take to grow. There are steps you have to take to scale. There are steps you have to take to sell your company or even close down your company. While each and every journey may look different, there are still steps you have to take.

The nice thing is you can take those steps at your own pace and if you miss one, you can step back for a redo, and then take the next one.

Remember friend, you’re exactly where you need to be in your journey, be patient, and do yourself a favor and let those nails dry the full 5-10 minutes between coats!

I'd love to know...do you tend to get impatient or are you slow and steady checking each box kind of owner?!