Nothing Should Be Running On "Life Support"

A few years ago I was speaking with a guy who ran a billion-dollar business abroad, and as we were talking about his execution, he said the phrase used in the title of today’s edition. It struck me because he pulls this concept across the board—in business and in life. It’s something I found incredibly useful. 

The concept was that in your work, there are going to be things that are not thriving…you have to get honest about them, give them a real shot of what they’d need to come alive, and if they’re just not going to come alive and feel them lingering on? Pull the plug, and do it quickly.

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Life support, in any area of your business or life, actively takes from you. It’s a drain siphoning your time, resources, mental space, and energy. You can’t be your best with these anchors all around—plugged in and pulling the juice from you. 

The natural human tendency is to drag things on, to put things off, and to carry hope that things will turn around. People do that everywhere in their lives—in their work, relationships, and even friendships. This was an ultra-successful individual who didn’t…and it was part of his magic.

Operating by a philosophy of “nothing runs on life support” is an incredibly challenging framework that goes against your instincts—that’s why it’s so rare to encounter. As humans, we tend to have a lot of “sunk cost bias.” When we have put forth some effort into something, we want to see it win because we feel like we’ve already invested so much.

It’s hard to cut the cord, make a clean break, move ahead, and leave the broken things behind when they just aren’t working. It can feel like a failure, but it’s not…failure is allowing broken things in your life or work to become anchors that drag at you psychologically and kill your potential momentum. That is failure—and it poisons future success and happiness.

Not running on life support requires absolute ownership.

It forces us not to look away from things that are broken or not working and really make the difficult decisions. That also goes against the human tendency to just put the suboptimal on the back burner, address it another time, or hope it somehow (magically) gets better. We avoid things that cause us anxiety or discomfort…and it’s uncomfortable to look at these things—but you’ve got to face them front and center here. Look at them. Accept the reality.

That is incredibly hard to do. 

The thing to remember is that—if you have the courage to do it—not operating on life support can uplevel every area of your life and work.

How do you know this? Look around. There are thousands of people joking about their terrible marriages, bad employees, or elements of their lives that aren’t working…and they’re not making the effort to fix it or making the calls to end it. They exist in the messy middle—floating along in the midst of polluted waters. If you listen to a group of people speak, they’ll often even “bond” over those things at parties or gatherings.

Stay away from people like that. It’s not who you want to be.

This requires you to step up—to try earnestly—and to make the hard decisions when things aren’t working.

If you want to be like most people, then go ahead. Keep doing what you’re doing because that’s what you’re going to get.

• Most people want to avoid the things they are struggling with, but this philosophy requires you to dive into them immediately. 

• Most people want to not put forth the effort and just blame another, and this philosophy requires you to own what you can, do your part, and try.

• Most people will not want to make the decision quickly and let things drag out because it seems easier to ignore and hope it gets better. This philosophy means you will address it, do what needs to be done, and pull that plug.

This is a brutal philosophy but the results are exemplary.

Your life changes. In your work, in your personal life—you move on things quickly. Things do not “build up” or “drag out.” You identify the issue, run toward it to own what you can, and cut your losses when you see the writing on the wall. 

Life support is keeping something alive that isn’t coming back. When you see that truth, owning it is one of the most powerful things you’ll do in your life.

Try earnestly, make the hard calls early, do it fast, and move forward.  

The thing I like about this simple philosophy is that it requires 3 things:

1. Identifying What’s *Not* Thriving. Be brutally honest about what is not working in your life and work, what is falling under expectation, not meeting the mark, failing or disappointing you. They can be projects, areas of your career, areas of your personal relationship, etc. 

2. Owning the Problem. Combat the urge to avoid, ignore, or kick the can down the road. Look at all of those issues and decide all the things you can do to own that problem and genuinely try to improve it. Don’t blame other people instead. If there is someone else who is causing that problem and you’ve hired them, you are still the problem.

   Look for possible solutions and tackle the hard things to make them happen. It could be firing someone to make something more efficient or profitable, or it could be confronting your own pride to step up and make some changes at home. Whatever it is, you own it, make the effort, and give it what it should reasonably need to thrive.

   Do your part, take responsibility, and get invested. This requires you to not do it half-heartedly, but really go all-in.

3. Making the Hard Call. After you’ve truly done everything you can to own the problem and implement possible solutions, it’s time to take a step back, assess it, and ask yourself—have I done all I can, and is the result acceptable?

   What you’ll find is that some things have leveled up. You’ll see that your courage to tackle hard things and your efforts to make real changes have paid off. There are some things that can be revived from the brink of death!

   What you’ll also find is that some things just aren’t going to change. They’re going to be suboptimal, and you’ve got some hard choices to make. Do you go back to Step 2? Or is it time to pull the plug?

   Remember, nothing runs on life support.

This is *not* a cut & run strategy.

You own the problems, but it becomes unacceptable for anything to linger or be simply “on life support”.

The hardest part? This will require you to confront the things that clearly aren’t working.

If you are like most people, you already know what those things are in your life. Maybe it’s some element of your business, your career, your relationships.

Whatever it is, it’s time to make a change.

Here’s your challenge: Get the things that aren’t working off “life support.” Open a document, look at the 3 areas of the philosophy above, and spend some time on the following steps.

1. On the left side of the page, write down the areas of your work or personal life that aren’t working right now. Be brutally honest and list things that are essentially on “life support” or just getting by with a pulse. Do this without judgment—if something pops into your mind, don’t let yourself brush it away with excuses. It might be hard to admit that something is on life support, but you can’t fix it—or make space for something better—if you aren’t willing to face it.

2. Decide what actions you can take to give these things an honest shot at thriving—despite anyone else’s contributions to these areas—and write them down next to each item on “life support.” Remember, you need to be the one to make the effort. It might be a product at work that needs your focus, an employee that’s checked out, or an issue with your romantic partner/spouse where the romance has died and you’ve essentially become roommates. Whatever it is, own it and do your part.

   Write down concrete steps you can take for each thing that’s on life support. Some might be smaller than others, but each should have solid, actionable steps next to them.

   Already know something is dead and not coming back? Pull the cord now. Be honest about what you’ve been avoiding—the things where you *know* no effort can save them—and stop putting it off.

3. Map it out on your calendar. In the areas where you’ve decided to take action, map it out on your calendar so you’re committed to actually doing that work. Literally include the concrete steps in your day-to-day so they’re not dropped or forgotten, and set an alarm to make sure it happens.

   From there? Schedule a date on your calendar to check in, add a standard of improvement you’d like to see, and include an additional deadline for when you need to make the hard calls.

Repeat this process frequently, and it will get easier. Eventually, you’ll start to notice things that are on life support—including which can and can’t be saved—so you can develop a bias toward action instead of avoidance.

Nothing in your life should simply be plugged in, barely getting by, and failing to thrive. Do what you need to do, examine the results honestly, and pull the plug on the things that require it. 

Uplevel your Life.

This is the only Weekly Challenge that will be available to everyone as a sample of what to expect. More will be delivered to paid subscribers only, week after week…Hope to see you taking it on if you haven’t already.