A Penny For Your Thoughts

Time and daily choice are our most powerful agents of change. Our choices can be powerful allies or erosive forces resulting in mediocrity.

The following exercise is posed by Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, author of Habits of Heath.

Say you have to make a choice – “I’ll write you check today for a million dollars or I’ll give you a penny today and double it every day for thirty-one days. Two choices – a million dollars today or the sum of a penny doubled for one month.”

Surprisingly by waiting patiently for 31 days instead of grabbing the instant million, you’ll end up with $10,737,418. Yet most of us would take the million-dollar handout in a heartbeat.

This may help to explain why 87% of employees worldwide and 70% in the U.S. are not engaged. “Many companies are experiencing a crisis of engagement and aren’t aware of it,” according to Gallup.

Perhaps a timeout to examine our choices like merely checking the box rather than doing the right thing is upon us.

How is it possible that our leaders are running organizations where 70% of its people are checked out? Let’s start practicing behaviors and making decisions that compound over time resulting in fully engaged, rewarding and profitable companies.

While these choices will definitely be difficult ones requiring discipline, deliberation and a desire to do the right thing, the payoff will be healthier for both the employee and the company.

In practice,

Eunice