Here comes that sinking feeling again. And once again, you feel helpless against its pull. But this time — put these three floatation devices to work for you. Because not only do you not need to sink this time — you can come out of this one better than when you went in.

What went wrong?

One historian has claimed —

“The three most-written-about subjects of all time are Jesus, the Civil War, and the Titanic.”

But is there a connection between these three subjects?

Well — yes.

A tragic loss of human life.

So what can we learn in particular from the sinking of the Titanic?

And how might what we learn help you close out your year well —

And even get a head start on the year to come?

Let’s focus on three errors.

Because there were many things that may have led to the tragic events of the night of April 14 and the morning of April 15, 1912.

Some say the ship sank because of “brittle steel” that cracked in the cold water.

Others claim it was because the rivets in the bow section were made of inferior material.

But let’s cut to the chase.

And for the sake of lessons that may yet save your skin, and the livelihood of those you care about —

Let’s focus at three especially stupid — and avoidable — human errors that caused so many to die that night —

And draw a few life-saving lessons for you as you wind up your year and prepare for 2018.

Three stupid, sinking errors.

Because of the many errors that may have sunk Titanic, there are three really stupid ones.

And what’s relevant is —

These are three errors that you may be currently flirting with yourself.

So here they are:

1. Running too fast
2. Ignoring the warning signs.
3. Not leaving enough margin for error.

And let’s look briefly at each of these — one at a time.

1. Running too fast.

Titanic was running at 22 knots that night.

And in case you don’t have your handy nautical equivalents table nearby —

That’s about 25 miles per hour.

And through waters known to have lots of icebergs.

So ask yourself: Am I running too fast for the degree of difficulty of my current life situation?

Do I need to slow it down a bit?

2. Ignoring the warning signs.

The ship received 6 distinct warnings before the collision with the iceberg that took it to the bottom.

So why did all those warnings go unheeded?

Was it because the ship was supposedly unsinkable?

So ask yourself: Am I heeding the warning signs from those who are trying to tell me something?

Do I need to open up my ears to those who are trying to help me?

3. Not leaving enough margin for error.

And finally — the famous lack of life boats.

Even after the ship hit the iceberg, there was enough time to get everyone off the ship before it went down.

Because it took over two hours for the ship to sink.

But, as you know —

There was a famously lacking allowance for margin of error.

There were only enough life boats for about half the people on the ship.

So ask yourself: Have I allowed enough room for margin of error?

Do I need to build a bit more redundancy into my plan?

You can still make big plans.

In fact, I encourage you to make plans of Titanic proportions.

But take heed.

For the sake of your well-being —

And for those you care about this holiday season — and beyond.

Take a moment to address these three stupid errors that may be present in your life and business plans.

And if you’d like to talk more about a specific situation that you’re facing today, feel free to write to me at mark@marknewtonpdx.com.

Otherwise —

See you next week.