143: Break the Ice Before It Freezes: The Gordon Principle

It's April in Buffalo. My car is coated in frost. I'm standing at the window being dramatic about it when my brain pulls up a memory from when I was a kid.

Our dog, Gordon.

Gordon figured out, at some point, that if he dipped his nose into his outdoor water dish every few hours, the thin layer of ice would never get thick enough to seal off his water. 

Crack the surface. Walk away. Come back. Crack it again.

That is the move. It is the Gordon Principle. And it is one of the most important things you can be practicing in your business and in your personal life right now.

Because every tension starts as a thin layer. Left alone, it thickens. And left alone long enough, a ten-second conversation becomes a ninety-minute blow-up.

In this episode, we are talking about the ice forming right now, in both places, while you are listening. The conversation you have been postponing for two weeks. Two months. A year. And why the bill doubles every week you wait.

Inside:

– The three business conversations we postpone the longest, and the exact opening sentence to crack each one this week

– Why "keeping the peace" is almost always a lie (and what it is actually costing you)

– The personal relationships where thin ice is thickening right now, the flaky friend, the family comment at Easter, the partner, the parent you keep managing around

– The math of ice: why conversations get exponentially harder every week you wait

– The ten-second sentence that prevents the ninety-minute blow-up

If you have been carrying the weight of an unsaid thing for weeks or months, this one is for you.

Cold-nose energy.