(This is part 5 of a 7-part series on “Warning Signs That it Might be Time to Sell Your Business”)

Significant Life Impacting Events! Nobody likes to talk about significant life impacting events, but they do occur and they occur to all of us. What is a significant life impacting event you may ask? It could be a number of things. It could be a divorce, a death in the family, sickness of yourself or a loved one, it could be the dissolving of a partnership, the death of a pet, excessive business or personal debt, or perhaps the relocation of a loved one. There many different types of the situations we would call significant life impacting events. But sometimes these events that occur in our lives may be telling us it is time to move on and close the chapter on the present part of our lives and to do something different.

A recent psychological study was done with individuals who were in negative situations with a lot of negative components affecting their lives (i.e. gangs, domestic violence etc.). When these individuals were removed from their negative environment and placed into a more positive environment the change in behavior and results of these individuals was dramatic. It was proven that by removing someone from the influence of the negative environment they could be reshaped into a positive individual where they were able to use their talents and lead productive lives. But here was the flip side of the equation. They also learned that if that same individual that was taken from the negative situation and placed into the positive situation should ever return to the negative situation for a period of 14 days or more, the individual would return to the negative situation of their environment and all of the improvements that had been made in that person’s life would be lost and they would be back to square one.

So when a significant life impacting situation occurs, stand back and look at the situation with an unbiased view and see if it is telling you it may be time to move onto to another business.