There's a Metaphor is this one for Everyone!

What I'm about to describe may seem mundane and irrelevant, but stay tuned!  I rarely paint my nails - I attribute it to never being as 'girly' to want to do it and also to the fact that I cook a lot and don't like toxic chips of polish getting chopped into my food.  Either ways, you'd think then that I wouldn't have a vast collection of nail paint bottles. But that isn't quite so as I discovered yesterday.  I needed to find some time for myself - some peace of mind and something to submerge myself in; so I dug into my dresser and found the huge vanity case in which I stored my nail paints.  It was a little dusty and as I pulled it out I realised it was really heavy. Why? Curious, I opened it and realised that over the last few years I had accumulated quite a few of these tiny glass bottles; some out of compulsive shopping at the marts, some because I needed a particular colour to go with a certain dress on an annual event. 

Here's an Idea for You

In what areas of life have you made investments (time, resources, effort, emotions, etc.) that you felt would be worthwhile at the moment and later forgot about or never went back to? How many of these are intentional and how many purely due to poor management?

Defining Idea

“All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.” – Elias Canetti, Swiss Author

Now here's where it got interesting.... I tried thinking of the last time I used some of these paints - and couldn't recall. Even today, as I thought about which colour enamel I wanted on my nails, it was the more current, recent bottles that I found myself going for.  It was a good day, in terms of time – plenty to spare since I couldn’t focus on anything else anyway. I told myself that I had two choices 1) as always, pick a colour that pleases me today and bring out the artist in me, 2) once and for all sort this case of colours and get rid of all these ugly bottles that have probably gone rotten inside and lighten the load.

The newer collection

I went with the latter. I first started out by laying a sheet of paper on my bed and turned out the entire case to spill the bottles on it.  ‘Oh my goodness!! I have so many nail paints! For someone who doesn’t paint her nails very often that sure is a lot! I wonder if Kim Kardashian has a whole wardrobe filled with these tiny bottles.’ I had planned to sort them in two categories – keep and throw. But as I began sorting, I found myself almost willingly not putting any into the ‘throw’ side of the bed and instead created a pseudo category ‘maybe’. By the end of the sorting I had three piles – keep, maybe and unsorted! None were going!! This was confusing. So I’m actually saying that I have all these paints that are both usable and perfectly fine but I haven’t used them and just bought newer ones instead and now lost inclination to go back to them?  This wasn’t good!

Here's an Idea for You

Have you made the time to clean up lately? When you have, are you among those who would rather replace than work on fixing?

Defining Idea

“If you’re too busy to build good systems, then you’ll always be too busy” – Brian Logue

Why is it that in all these years (6 to be precise, because it was a collection of nail paints only since my marriage) I hadn’t once revisited some of the nail paints which I had surely procured for a reason? Why is it that in all the time in between, I hadn’t thought about doing this exercise? Perhaps I could have reused them earlier had I sorted them out before. The last time I did something similar is before my wedding, because I had to move houses and belongings. 

Here's an Idea for You

Do we require life altering events to make some important changes which aren’t truly dependent on these events anyway?  Priority-wise how much scope do we have for better resource management if we allocate planned and better time to it? Do you change before you 'have to'?

Defining Idea

“One reason people resist change is because they focus on what they have to give up, instead of what they have to gain” – Rick Godwin

Older collection

Getting back to the three piles of nail paint bottles I had in front of me.  This sorting wasn’t working.  So I decided to use another method – the litmus test of nail paints – the thinness test.  I opened each bottle and checked the consistency of the nail paints. I was so sure that I’d lose at least half of them with this method.  So I started with the newest and put them all in the safe zone.  They’re new! Obviously I remember the reasons I bought them and the PRICE I paid for them – too precious to throw.  Then I went through the older lot… one by one… opening each bottle after a vigorous shake and checking if the paint was thin or thick – hoping that it was sticky or even dried up so it would go straight in the bin. But, to my surprise – every single bottle was worth being used at a nail spa! Great consistency, still smooth, not split and almost entire bottles full of paint. OUCH!! Now what?

Dust and mold on the bottle

I took a moment to think about what made me not go back to these paints every time I opened my vanity case for picking a colour?  Was it that the colours were outdated now? True for around 15% of them. What about the rest? Had any of them proved bad for my nails? True for around 5% of them. For the other 80% I realised that the only thing that prevented them being used is that they lost appeal purely from their exterior, not interior. Huh?? Whose fault was that? They looked perfectly fine when I purchased them. They still have the same qualities to get the job done.  So I was responsible for this? YES. Keeping them unused had caused the outer prints to get oxidized. In some cases there was dust and mold under the rims of the lids on the bottle and some just had some hardened paint from spills on the outsides which made them look unappealing. I hadn’t taken the time to clean these ever! 

The unsaveable lot

I dropped everything down, put on my floaters, grabbed an umbrella and some cash and went to the store to buy a bottle of acetone and a bottle of spirit. The acetone would help me thin some of the paints that were still good, but could use some thinning to last another couple of years. Spirit would help get the outside clean and disinfected. Half an hour later, I had some fabulous looking, top quality bottles that looked fresh off the shelf. And the 20% that hadn’t passed the test? – I got rid of them.

Here's an Idea for You

Identifying quality resources and focusing your energy on working on only these is absolutely essential, but do you have a process that works well in identifying these? Is it fool-proof? These processes are time consuming, but save a whole lot of time and costs in the future. They also give you an accurate estimation of your assets.

Defining Idea

“I’m convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not strategies” – Lawrence Bossidy, GE

The outcome – I have a lighter, better-organized, all ready-to-use and almost feels-like-new range of nail paints waiting for me to use them more often.  It actually has me excited to paint my nails at least once a fortnight from now on! And, I have space for my nail paint removers, cotton wool and manicure set in the same case (which I didn’t before). But here’s the best part, and my biggest eye opener – After I had all my nail paints ready to go back in the case, the case now looked dirty, dull and like it needed a good cleaning itself in comparison. And you know what? I would never have thought about that had the nail paints in this management system not looked so fresh and new. 

Oh and I figured that Kim Kardashian wouldn't own a wardrobe of nail paints - she would just leave that to the nail spas! But I'll leave that topic of lean resource management for another day :)

Here's an Idea for You

Management systems that hold, lead and manage resources are only as good as the resources they manage. Do you feel great about being current because the resources you manage aren’t as current? How often do you challenge your own potential? Are you open to challenge or do you see it as a threat?

Defining Idea

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, you need a good team.” – John Wooden

“If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will just take care of itself.” – Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com