One afternoon, I was working in my home office when I heard a faint, irregular drip.

I followed the sound into the bathroom, opened the doors under the sink, and found a small leak. My first move wasn’t to grab tools or call a plumber. I walked to the kitchen, pulled out a small plastic bowl, slid it under the pipe, and declared victory.

A week later, the drip got worse, so... I upgraded to a bigger bowl. And, declared victory over the drip, again!

Weeks passed, and eventually I got tired of emptying bowls, wiping up water, and pretending the problem was under control.

So I finally did what I should have done on day one. I went to Lowe’s, bought the fittings and supplies, and the next morning, I cleared time for what I assumed would be a messy, frustrating ordeal. 

Result? 

It took less than ten minutes. I even did the napkin test; no drips. Completely dry. After high-fiving myself 🙌🏼 multiple times, a nagging question kept looping in my brain, 

“Why didn’t I just do this sooner?”

The answer had nothing to do with skill or time. It had everything to do with memory.

Hang in there with me...

Every plumbing attempt I could remember had ended in failure: leaks that worsened, parts that didn’t fit, water everywhere, and eventually, calls to a real plumber. 

My brain had created a file labeled “Plumbing = Disaster.”

When the cue appeared (the sound of dripping), my mind instantly reached into that file, pulled up the old evidence, projected it into the future (“This will be a mess again”), and used that prediction to decide on the present:

Don’t touch it. Manage it with bowls. Avoid the risk.

My brain followed a predictable sequence: Cue → Past → Future Prediction → Present (In)action.

• Cue: The drip 
• Past Recall: You suck at plumbing
• Future Prediction: It ain't gonna go your way
• Present: Don't do it, bruh!

This is one of the most common and expensive patterns in business and life. It’s why smart, capable people avoid difficult conversations, delay price increases, postpone process changes, or never follow up with that prospect who went cold last time. 

We think we’re being rational. In reality, we’re letting outdated data run the show.

The bowls felt like a solution; it wasn't. It was a comfortable form of avoidance. My brain (memories) eroded my confidence, so I didn't act, compounding the risk of bigger damage (e.g., water in the wood, mold, etc.).

Funny thing is, once I started, the task was almost embarrassingly simple. And, that’s usually the case. The battle is in our minds more than in reality.

Here's some suggestions on how to break the 'Avoidance Loop' I found myself in:

1. Label the Retrieval: When you feel resistance, pause and name what’s happening out loud in your head: “My brain is pulling old failures to predict this outcome.” Labeling creates psychological distance. You stop being inside the prediction and start observing it.

2. Give Yourself Permission to Struggle:  Before you begin, explicitly lower the stakes with yourself: “It’s okay if this doesn’t go perfectly the first time. I’m allowed to struggle and learn.” This psychological inoculation reduces the perfectionist pressure that often fuels avoidance. When your brain expects (and accepts) possible imperfection or even failure, the fear of repeating past experiences loses much of its power. Progress, not perfection, becomes the new standard.

3. Treat the Past as Data, Not Destiny: Ask one better question: “What specifically went wrong last time that I can now control or prepare for?” Most of the time, the variables have changed, including you, but your brain is still running the old program.

The bowls felt productive. They weren’t. They were just slow, expensive procrastination. 

The fix was always available. It was waiting on the other side of a story I had stopped questioning. 

Let's talk sales,...

In sales, this pattern is quietly draining revenue every single day. 

• It shows up as the follow-up you keep postponing because the last one went nowhere. 
• The price conversation you avoid because a client pushed back once. 
• The new outreach approach or script you never test because an old version fell flat. 
• The objection you dance around instead of addressing directly because it stung in the past.

Every day you choose to “manage the leak with a bigger bowl,” your pipeline leaks opportunity, your close rate stays stuck, and your confidence slowly erodes. The cost shows up in missed quotas, thinner margins (i.e., discounting), and deals that stall (i.e., ghosting) or die (i.e., didn't push for a commitment).

Here’s the truth most salespeople never hear: Those fears are almost always based on past data, NOT on who you are or what you’re capable of right now.

Your brain is protecting you from an old version of reality. 

The moment you treat those fears as outdated projections instead of the current truth, you take your power back!

So I’ll ask you directly:

1. What sales task, conversation, or process have you been avoiding because of a past failure? 
2. How is that avoidance quietly costing you in revenue, close rate, or momentum right now?

The good news is simple: 

You don’t have to be fearless. You just have to stop letting an old story make decisions for your current self.

Pick one small leak this week and give yourself permission to struggle; hell, even fail!

Then, watch what happens over time when you stop managing the drip and actually fix the pipe. Your future results, and the revenue attached to them, are waiting on the other side of that first imperfect action.

What “leak” are you going to tackle this week?