Have you ever heard the adage about kittens and alligators?

Naturally, kittens are cute and cuddly and add joy to our life whenever we're in their presence. 

Alligators, on the other hand, are fine to experience when they are a safe distance away or behind the safety of protective glass, but in any other situation, encountering an alligator in the wild can spark feelings of angst and discomfort.

Now, imagine you have a room (aka your life) full of cute and cuddly kittens (the things that make you happy) AND menacing alligators (your day-to-day challenges) all sharing that same space.

Considering your primary goal is to bring more joy to your life, your first thought might be to simply "add more kittens" to the room.  

Unfortunately, all this solves is creating a more abundant food supply for the alligators...

The Point?

Whether we are talking about the life example above or the challenges and triumphs in our businesses, we can't add more joy without first working to remove challenges or in other words, all of the "alligators".

A Business Case

If you're advertising to promote your product, service, or cause without regularly reviewing what channels, ads, and clients/customers/donors are delivering the highest return for your investment (and subsequently weeding out the ones that aren't working - aka your alligators) adding more budget (aka kittens) will not be nearly as effective. 

Remove the alligators, then add more kittens.

Thank you for reading and make it a great week!