No one is asking for it to get done so it's easy to push it to the back burner.
It only gets done when it becomes a priority.
Imagine you gained a few pounds over the winter. You eat a bit more, and exercise less as the temperature drops below freezing.
You become a bear. You hibernate, and fatten up to have an extra shield of armour to ward off the cold.
Your favourite pair of pants become uncomfortable. They stretch past the comfort zone. The zipper fights to stay closed and your stomach scrunches up to survive another day.
Just after Christmas, the zipper informs you that he is stressed and may need to go out on leave if this keeps up.
You avoid the plea for help. January is only 31 days long and Christmas weight will come off. The world would return to normal and all would be right again between you and your knickers.
Then one day in January, you see in the bathroom mirror that your zipper is already half way to quitting time. Luckily you are wearing black underwear, so you suck your gut back into place and coax the zip back to work.
To get a head start on spring, you make a conscious decision to work out a bit more to help the zipper with his job. And all seems back to normal. Everyone is doing their jobs.
Fast forward two weeks...
You are standing in front of a room of 25 people giving a presentation, when 3 ladies off to one corner start giggling. The presentation has some funny parts, so giggling is expected. But you aren't at the giggly part yet. So as you're talking, your mind races to what could possibly be so funny.
It is distracting. Your mouth is moving, but your mind is focussed on those three girls, when a lightning bolt strikes.
"Are you wearing the pants with the tired zipper?"
Oh shit, what if your zipper quit?
How do you check?
If you put your hand there, and the zipper is still holding up, you'll look like a fool.
You can't turn around and do a zip check, it will look odd.
But you can't continue if the zip retired. No one can focus on a fool's words when his horse is about to escape the barn.
You think you're an idiot. You should've fixed that zipper or at least put those pants aside until you lost the weight. Now you're forced to deal with the shame you created.
With all this distraction, you can't continue. Words are coming out and you're not sure you're making any sense. You're living your nightmare. You're half naked in front of 25 people you don't know. All because of a stupid tired zipper not willing to do his job. You weren't paying attention to details.
In a last ditch effort, you decide to leave the room with some lame excuse.
But the good lord comes to your rescue as someone feels the need to discuss his experience. It is the perfect timing you need as everyone looks at him. You turn sideways to your right, while quietly sliding your right hand quickly down to the junk region, to discover your zipper is working as hard as you expect of him.
Phewf, another disaster diverted. The ladies are laughing at something other than your nakedness.
Are there things in your business that need your attention?
Are those same things continuously going to the bottom of your "to-do" list because of their low priority?
Remember, like a dumb zipper, everything eventually becomes a priority.
A disaster outside of your control is unfortunate.
A disaster within your control is stupidity.
Don't get caught with your pants down. You have no one to blame but yourself.
