What Direction Do You Want to Go? What do you do when everything around you starts becoming everything you never wanted it to be? Do you cut bait and move on or believe this change is necessary? This is a very tough choice, and I assume either option will work out OK.

But which path will cause you the least emotional exhaustion?

Why is it so damn hard to swallow your pride sometimes, even when you know deep down that you are wrong? Why do we foolishly stick with one path and constantly struggle to find that feeling of being right? How do you trust someone when you have watched them time and time again say one thing but do another? Why should you expect them to act differently toward you?

Do you continue to fight for what you know is right or sit back and let things go knowing something just doesn't feel right? Is there more satisfaction in getting your way or letting others do what they want and watching them fail?

If you don’t like what you are getting out of life, take a long, hard look at what you are putting into it. Many people know what they want to have, but have no idea of who they want to be. The days of going after what you want — by any means necessary and without consequences — are coming to an end. There is going to be a new way of doing business, and it will create new leaders and new people whom others will listen to, talk with and look to for advice. It will be people who walk the walk — not just talk the talk.

The future will be there for the taking by people who treat their employees better than they do themselves. The company of the future will be there to make the lives of its employees and customers better simply for working with them. The focus will be more on the people of an organization, rather than the products it sells.

If you don’t believe this, you better hope you are wrong — because if we have the same people trying to fix the system they broke, where will we end up? These new leaders will move us forward in a different direction, a direction that hopefully will be better for all of us in the long run.

Sometimes, you need to change your mind or your mind will change you. Should you really continue to point the finger of blame in a time like this? Or, should we work together to get ourselves out of this mess? Proving one side right and the other side wrong will probably make things worse than they already are. As Voltaire said: “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

Do yourself and the people around you a favor. Next time you make a mistake: Don’t follow it up with excuses.They change nothing in their lives to make this possible. As Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Everyone has bad days, bad weeks, maybe even a bad year, but how you handle that time will be a blueprint for how you handle yourself when things turn around. The trick is to get out of your funk quicker than you did the time before. “Easier said than done,” says the person who wants to get better, but doesn’t want to do anything about it.

Charley Johnson is executive vice president and part owner of the Salt Lake City-based supplier SnugZ USA. He was recently voted No. 38 on Counselor’s 2008 Power 50 list. With a different approach on business and life, he hopes to change the world like no one ever thought possible.