A few years back, we made a radical change in the way we manage our home life.
Grocery delivery.
Hey, don’t knock it till ya’ve tried it.
It’s pretty amazing, especially with four kids. Grocery delivery is absolutely worth the money we pay for it.
We had some good reasons for it, too. We justified by saying that we’d probably spend less because we can see what we’re spending money on as we add things to the cart, we wouldn’t ever have to worry about grocery shopping when were hungry and overspending, and we wouldn’t be tantalized by the impulse buying that inevitably happens when you’re in the store.
Of course—my naiveté became apparent when I discovered (as I should have very well known, given what I do for a living) what lengths they go to replicate those same experiences in the mobile app.
It’s definitely better—for example, I can go right to “My Items” and easily filter by “Frequently Bought.” That way, it’s very easy to grab our staples. It takes a fraction of the time to shop for groceries this way. And I would say that “normal” grocery trips done this way are FOR SURE an overall win.
But the other day, I had a problem. I needed just a few things from the store, but by the time my fingers stopped pressing buttons, there was over $100 worth of stuff in the cart!
And that was after (I thought!) pruning it down and “ making some sacrifices” 🤣. So, in a rare fit of self-awareness, I had Tiffany double check me. She offered a needed corrective:
“What do you mean you don’t know what else you can take off?!”
And she proceeds to save me roughly $30 on the order (could have been more, actually, I forget).
What is the point of this story?
Simply that sometimes in business, just like in life, we overcompensate. We create waste. We lack self-awareness. We get lazy. We want too much. We “need” too much. We don’t ask for help. We need help. We outspend our ability. And more.
Sometimes you need to zoom out, take inventory of your decisions, and see whether your decisions are working towards your values and goals or away from them. And if you ever need any help with that, give me a holler.