What Are Your Favorite M&Ms?

What Are Your Favorite M&Ms? Copyright 2007 Sandy R. Lawrence

Ha! Another chocolate-love
is wooed into reading this – gotcha! What came to your mind first? Brightly colored candies that well, you know the saying “melt in your mouth and not in your hands." Practical; yet tasty.

Or, were you thinking of the last time you opened a friendly brown (or yellow) bag and thought “I’ll only eat a few for now . . .” and before you knew what happened, you ended up consuming the whole thing?!’

That’s a lot like the M & Ms in my world these days: Marketing & Momentum. n
My attraction to “Marketing” is akin to these brightly colored candies, or their fun packaging that just begs for attention. I’m drawn to the many ideas and ‘colors’ of marketing plans and tactics. I literally eat that stuff up. Why? Because people get connected when marketing efforts are implemented as intended! Solutions get shared. Deals get made. Friendships are born. Goals are achieved. Plus, I believe that ‘together we’re better.’ Marketing can help bring together powerful alliances.

I’m often enamored with “Momentum” as well– for others and myself. The dictionary defines momentum as ‘determination, initiative, get-up-and-go, energy, a compelling force, power, influence, control.’ (If I wasn’t a happily married woman, I’d be scanning a dating bio hoping to find those same attributes in the opposite sex. What?! YES, my husband IS all that and more; sorry ladies!)

Momentum. My dance with momentum is often one of optimistic, bubbly consumption. Yet, sometimes it’s a slower dance, like taking time to savor the chocolate pieces melting in your mouth before choosing to take another bite. Imagine you have a new bag of M&Ms. You choose a favorite color; you place it in your mouth but don’t bite. You taste the sweet yet hard outer coating as it dissolves, and very soon you begin to enjoy the flavor of the chocolate escaping. n
Certainly, it’s a process you can only appreciate when you slow down, taking your time . . . when you’re intentional to create and study each moment. (PLEASE don’t leave just now for the vending machine or a run to the convenience store! Let’s finish talking about the stuff of business - PACING yourself in business.)

Self-control in the moment is the kind of momentum that can result in a sustainable pace, verses burn-out. This is the kind of marketing momentum that has clarified plans and is diligently walking out those plans and tracking results. P - A - C - E means keeping an eye to completion of the plan without being anxious or voracious and overdoing it. n
If our marketing efforts are the bag of M&Ms, then the smaller daily appointments and tasks related to the master plan are the pieces we place in our mouth. The individual bites.

Stop and consider if your pace needs to be adjusted. Do you already have a mouthful? Are you gobbling more than your fill- so much so that you aren’t able to effectively track your efforts, or getting a stomach ache from overdoing it? n
Or, are you savoring each day and patiently and purposefully taking smaller bites, awaiting the moment of pay-off for your diligence . . . the moment when the hard outer shell gives way to small streams of joy? (Revenue not chocolate!) n
Possibly you are experiencing the other extreme-holding onto details so long that your plans become a sticky, wet mess. (Yeah, confessions of a coach, on occasion that's been me, too!) Thank God for Divine intervention and provision!!

What about you? Take time to consider which scenario is true in your case and adjust accordingly.

I’ll leave you with one last thought about a temptation that can affect your marketing momentum: just because someone around you has a new bag of M&Ms doesn’t mean you need to reach your hand into their bag.

Finish the one you’ve got, and then get your own new bag.

Note: No M&Ms were consumed in the writing of this article.