Listen instead on your Monday Morning Drive:

Business owners often view balance as one of those enticing yoga or exercise promises: “If you just do yoga for 30 days, you can look like this!”

But achieving balance isn’t just about what you start doing. It’s also about what you stop doing.

While rehabbing my shoulder, I learned to stop pulling my shoulder blades up to my ears while exercising. This minor adjustment relieved a ton of pressure. Similarly, in business, owners often respond to pressure by pushing against immovable objects rather than finding ways to ease that pressure.

When balancing on a beam, you’ll fall off if you refuse to shift your body weight. The same principle applies in business.

The Pricing Pressure Puzzle

You’ve likely heard a customer say, “Your prices are too high!”

We often respond to this pressure by digging in our heels, creating an immovable object out of our pricing structure. But what if we considered moving in three dimensions instead of one?

Here’s a thought experiment: Say your customers want lower pricing. You think you can’t lower prices any more — your price has become an immovable object.

But what if you changed the scope of work? Would that relieve pressure on pricing? Reducing the scope of work, bringing you to a lower price point, might relieve that pricing pressure.

Pay attention to what the pressure is really asking you to move. Sometimes, the request isn’t for you to make less money — it’s that the customer has less money to spend. Can you sell them a service that costs less?

Letting Go: The Path to Balance

Letting go doesn’t mean abandoning your principles or giving in to every demand. Instead, it’s about being mindful of the resistance you’re putting up and looking for places where you can anticipate pressure and find proactive solutions.

Let’s say you can’t afford to purchase new equipment this year, and you anticipate your team won’t be happy about it. Instead of saying, “Sorry, maybe next year,” you might find a supplier who’ll rent you the equipment at an affordable price.

This approach demonstrates that you anticipate obstacles and want to find creative solutions to relieve the pressure they’ll put on you. That’s the essence of balance in business.

The “Start Fresh” Approach

So, how do you do this? As I mentioned earlier, it’s a three-dimensional process:

Step 1: Start with a Clean Slate

Imagine your business in a Zen state. Revenue is good, the team’s morale is high, profitability is strong — everyone’s happy. Take a deep breath and savor this moment.

But this state won’t last long. What are the first three pressing issues, conflicts, or obstacles that’ll arise?

Don’t get bogged down with an exhaustive list. Focus on the most common critical challenges.

Step 2: Define Progress, Not Perfection

Once you’ve identified the three key challenges, resist the urge to solve them immediately. We’re not aiming for perfection. We’re looking for progress.

Think of it like stretching. If you stretch too hard too fast, you risk injury. Instead, focus on maintaining good form and making incremental progress. In business terms, this means defining the constraints and areas that’ll yield lasting results.

Let’s revisit our pricing pressure example:

Instead of immediately slashing prices (which could lead to a race to the bottom), consider tightening your scope of work and educating customers about your pricing structure. This approach doesn’t solve all pricing pressures overnight, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Action Item: Define a first-step response or a minimalist solution for each of your three key challenges. What’s the simplest thing you can do to start making progress?

Step 3: Focus on Essentials

Just as every good stretch has variations that work different muscles, every solid business solution has multiple elements contributing to its success.

For instance, if you’re addressing pricing pressures, you might focus on:

1. Improving documentation of pricing parameters
2. Refining how you describe your products or services
3. Creating better visuals to illustrate your scope of work in proposals

These sub-elements help make your progress “stickier” and more effective in the long run.

Action Item: For each of your minimalist solutions, identify 2–3 supporting elements that will enhance its effectiveness.

Putting It All Together

If you’re overwhelmed by challenges and struggling to clear your mental slate, don’t worry. Start where you are.

Make a list of everything eating at you — all the problems you don’t have solutions for yet. Then, take a few minutes to separate the things you have control over from those you don’t.

You’ll likely find that you can directly impact many issues that matter. As for the things outside your control? They’ll have less impact once you start working on the areas where you can make a difference.

Achieving balance in your business isn’t about perfection. It’s about making steady progress, letting go of what’s not working, and focusing your energy where it counts. By starting fresh with a clear perspective, defining attainable progress, and focusing on essential elements, you can create a more balanced, resilient business ready to face whatever challenges come your way.

Now, take that first step. Your more balanced business awaits.