Have you heard this joke? Jesus walks into a bar. Bartender asks, “What can I get ya?” Jesus says, “Just water,” then winks and walks away.

If only we, the self-employed teachers of the world, had the ability to turn water into wine. But alas, we are often stuck with just water. Or wine. But never water that we can turn into wine.

Over the past 8 years of my business, I have often found myself staring at water and hoping it would turn into wine. Or, more accurately, expecting that I could, if I just worked hard enough, turn it into wine.

Usually, an embarrassing amount of time later, I would finally admit that nope, it is water. It will always be water. It is impossible to turn it into wine.

For example, in the early days of our company we tried a drop-in English class. The concept looked good on paper, but no matter what we tried, we could not get the numbers we needed to make it work financially. We kept up the marketing. We persisted. We worked really, really hard. Eventually, we had to admit that no matter what we did, it was the wrong program for our client base and our business. It was water, and it would never turn into wine.

In fact, we have tried and eliminated several programs like this. The trick, of course, is the timing. Are you on the cusp of success, or on the treadmill of failure? Are you nurturing wine that just needs to mature, or are you just clutching a bottle of water?

I am not sure I have a simple answer, but the good news is that the more often you make these decisions, the better you become at making them. For major new business efforts, I have a 6-month rule. The new project doesn’t have to be profitable in 6 months, but it does need to start tasting like wine. There needs to be some visible progress: customer growth, user traffic, sales growth, etc. Then I make a decision: cut the program or give it 6 more months?

The other key factor for us has been our yearly review of our income breakdown. At least once a year I look at our financial statements for the specific purpose of determining which programs are bringing us the greater share of revenue. Then I try to focus more on the most profitable programs. Over time, this has resulted in the maturing of some pretty fine wine.

What programs have you cut? What has turned out to be just water, and what has matured into fine wine for your business?

Preserve one day a week when you do not work. No email. No business-related social media. No planning. No accounting. Nothing. Get out of the house and do something else. Anything else. Or stay in and watch a few movies. It doesn’t matter. Just do no work. Trust me. The next day, when you roll out of bed, you will have twice the energy, and you will be ready to dive into your business once again.

I hate making decisions.  I once spent 10 minutes choosing the color of my undershirt, even though I wasn’t planning to leave the house. Sometimes it takes me a week to re-make a decision that I have already made. For me, decisions are to be avoided. Business decisions? They are the worst. At best, they result in positive, transformative change; at worst, they cost me money, and I feel like an idiot. I know that I am not the only decision-challenged person out there, so I would like to share two realizations that I have come to recently:

1. Most of my decisions, as tortuous as they have felt at the time, have actually been pretty good.  My business has had strong, positive growth every year since we started.  I have tested, added, and eliminated many different teaching services.  Each was a painful decision.  In the end, almost all of the decisions moved us forward.  Takeaway: I may suck at the decision-making process, but that doesn’t mean my decisions suck.  Look at your results before you are too hard on yourself.

2. Most decisions don’t matter — at least not as much as you think they do.  Probably 9 out of 10 of my decisions are like my undershirt choice: They feel important at the time, but in the end, they don’t matter to anyone but me.  In business, it is easy to imagine (or expect) consequences that will never, ever materialize. Even if they do, you can usually fix them. Whether you have just launched an unfortunate new logo or just told your beloved customers that your product will be a little less good going forward, bad business decisions can almost always be reversed.  Takeaway: Next time you are making a decision, make sure you see it for what it is, not what it might possibly turnout to be 3 years from now when your worst fears possibly come true. They won’t. Just make the decision. You can always reconsider it next week.

Don’t be your worst enemy.  Don’t let your feelings get in the way of real progress on your business.

Like many things in life, our business reality and the way we “feel” about our business are often not the same thing.  I remember being particularly frustrated one month because I felt that my business was stuck. We hadn’t had any new customers for a few weeks, and my to-do list was looking increasingly irrelevant. Then I checked the numbers. Contrary to my assumptions, we were actually making more money than ever before.  I had also forgotten about the three clients who were up for contract renewal in the coming week. I was so focused on my mood that I had completely overlooked my success.

To avoid letting your emotions control your business, follow this 3-step plan:

1. Check yourself. Next time you are frustrated, double check to see if your feelings are valid.  Feeling like your revenue is down?  Check your numbers.  Chances are that you have forgotten about a recent success.

2. Review your progress. Dig out an old email or to-do list from when you first started your business.  Reread the content and compare it with your current situation. Marvel at your own progress.

3. Get something done. Sometimes just completing a simple task on your to-do list, cold-calling a potential customer, writing a blog post, or just cleaning up your office can alleviate feelings of frustration or sluggishness.

How do you keep your emotions in check?

A friend once told me that losing weight is easy:  Make sure more (calories) are going out than coming in.

Business is easy too:  Make sure more (money) is coming in than going out.

Of course, understanding how to lose weight is not the problem for most people.  Similarly, understanding business is not difficult either.  The problem is in the execution, not the concept.  Business and dieting both require discipline.

Before you make any business decision, ask yourself these two simple questions:  1) Will this decision increase the amount of money coming into my business? and 2) Will this decision decrease the amount of money going out of my business?  If the answer to both of these questions is “No,” it is a bad decision. Don’t do it.