Did I ever tell you how much I hate needles? I mean, my mom can rest assured – I’ll never do heroin. In fact, I’ve only had my blood drawn twice in the last 35 years. Let me tell you about the last time I had just a regular “shot”. I’m heading to South America, so I figure I better get vaccinated for a couple of weird things that run rampant down there.

Plus, I’d been working on getting over my fear of needles – so I thought Anyway – I get to the Med-Center to get my shot. Now, the nurse does something unexpected. Without any prompting on my part what-so-ever – she tells me I don’t really need this shot. She says if I’m careful and drink bottled water and eat hot food – I don’t need to worry. Mmmmmm? Maybe I can scoot out of here without getting stuck.

But I decide to be a big boy and go ahead with this traumatizing episode – in an effort to face my fears and get over them. Give me the shot! Now, my strategy to avoid fainting was to quickly exit the room and leave the Med-Center. You know – just think of other things till the danger passed. So, BAM! In goes the needle. Then that sickening injection of whatever the hell was in that syringe. And, of course my mind is playing tricks on me because I’m so freaked out. I mean this whole thing probably took 2 seconds. Seemed like 30.

Anyway, the nurse pops on a Band-Aid and I start for the door. But she starts mumbling about something (this was not in my plan). And as she rattles off something about something – I feel the first signs of a massive chemical dump forming in my brain. I’m very familiar with it. It’s the chemistry that causes my brain to shut down and go bye-bye for a few minutes.

Okay, I’m going down. And I know it. So I figure I’ll make a run for the lobby where Nancy is waiting patently for me. And, I’ll just pass out on the floor there. Maybe I can make it to the car – I’m not sure – my thinking is already getting fuzzy. Anyway, I ditch the nurse and make a break for it – I stumble through the door into the packed lobby.

I now realize I can’t make it – I’m going down – now! So I turn and grab the door handle to go back into the nurse’s area. Guess what? It’s locked. It’s one of those “you can leave – but you can’t come in” door handles that is always locked on one side. Great. With 4 or 5 brain cells still functioning – I spot an empty chair and make a slow motion “rubber-band-man” run for it. Well, Nancy tells me I almost made it. But, it was not meant to be.

Within 3 feet of the chair I lost consciousness and took a swan dive – right into it. Face first. So, there I am dropping like a tree, smashing face first into a chair, neck snapping backwards – and then flopping on to the floor. Must have been quite a sight (I wish I’d seen it). So now – the nurses think I’m having a bad reaction to the shot – and they’re freaking out. As I come to – my eyes start to focus on a nurse with a frightened look on her face with- guess what? A big needle in her hand. Yeah, they figure a little shot of adrenalin will fix me up.

Anyway, Nancy stops them before they get a chance to send me into la-la land again. She just says “He always does this”. When I first realized that I was in trouble – I could have stepped about 18 inches to my left and laid down on the bed in the examination room I was in. I could have fainted, woken up – and then gone home. No big deal. As it was – I’m very lucky I didn’t break my neck when I did the face-plant into the chair.

So, here’s the skinny… the minute you realize YOU are in trouble, guess what? You are. Your mind has an uncanny way of subconsciously scanning your environment – all the time looking for trouble. Anything amiss. Danger. When it spots trouble – it sends out a nagging “red-alert”. Most people ignore these warnings (like I did with the needle). I thought I had time. I didn’t.

The minute you notice a drop in sales. You better take notice. Now, I’m not talking about a “bad Thursday” or a slow week. I’m talking about that nagging ongoing decline that you start making excuses for. “Oh, it must be the weather”. “It must be my mother-in-law”. “It’s the damn economy”. Yeah, sure. When you “sense” a problem. You have one. And the sooner you acknowledge the problem and take some action – the more “smart” choices you’ll have at your disposal. This will result in “clear thinking” and less panic.