It is not that I am giving up… I simply recognise a weakness that can be overcome with a small change.
I love canoeing. I have been paddling boats of one sort or another since I was about six and can’t even imagine how many miles I have covered or rivers I have travelled. In simple terms you have a choice when paddling: canoe or kayak – the difference between the two actually has little to do with the boat but boils down to whether or not you have a a single (canoe) or double (kayak) ended paddle
In a totally unrelated incident a couple of years ago I broke my collar. What I have discovered recently is this means I can no longer kayak without a great deal of pain, but I can still canoe. I am sure that with the right physio, doctors etc I could make an improvement on the kayaking front but it has been made fairly clear to me that it will never be comfortable.
So I have done some soul searching and thinking. What is the point in putting myself through the pain involved in kayaking. I have always preferred canoes anyway, I am better at paddling them and they hurt less. It was time to put aside the fact that I wanted to kayak occasionally and focus on what I really loved doing and was better at in the first place. I held back making this decision before because it felt like giving up. It isn’t, instead I am focusing on something I am better at and more capable of achieving.
It is a similar and recurring story in business – so often we talk to clients who are pushing in different directions, uncomfortable with their choices and unsure of the “message” they want to portray. I firmly believe we should all push ourselves and explore new areas commercially and personally but there is a limit. It is always worth investigating the less trodden path and striving to be different, even when it causes some difficulties – but never to the detriment of what you do well or above all, what you are trying to achieve in the long term.