Last week was about our broken air conditioning and stepping away from the heat.  This week is about deciding between patching holes vs installing a new system.

Our house had been hot for days by the time the air conditioning company could come take a look at it.  When they showed up, we assumed that the problem would be fixed.  However, it wasn’t that straight forward, because some parts were broken.  Our unit was old, and we had a choice.  We could pay a decent amount of money to replace the parts, knowing that it’s an old system that will likely go out again, and that the system is no longer efficient.  Or, we could make a larger investment and replace the system with something that is more efficient and better.  We chose to invest in the new system, because long-term it would be better.

Let’s make some connections.  Have you ever seen this type of situation play out at work?  Maybe, you worked with equipment or technology that was aging, and you had to choose from patching it up or replacing the system.  Maybe, the way you did marketing no longer matched the environment, and you had to choose between continuing to do what you’ve done in the past or replacing the system with new processes and ways of working.  In both of these situations it likely would be easier to just keep on the path you were on.  It likely would be more comfortable.  It would likely be less expensive in the moment.  However, would it be the right thing to do?  It all depends.  As the world continues to evolve and as we grow, we will continually need to make a choice between patching up holes vs installing a new system.

The challenge: When will you patch things up so they can get by and when will you install a new system?

Bonus- This thinking can apply to our personal lives too.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve had moments where you realized your ways of thinking and viewing the world no longer worked as well as they once did as the world changed and as you started to grow.  You were then faced with a choice.  You could keep force fitting those old ways of thinking or you could invest in upgrading your whole belief system.  Evolving your belief system is hard work and requires a lot of time, but usually it’s more than worth it.  I can tell you that I have more love, compassion, and patience now than I ever had before, but it took me some work to get there.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry