Talk it through with Aurelius
Library›Aurelius›The problem
Aurelius · Work & Leadership
Knowledge + Guidance

Why does my process hold on some deals and vanish on others?

You call it flexibility. Examine it plainly: flexibility means choosing the right step for the situation. What you describe is skipping the step that is hardest for you, in the deals where it matters most. That is not adapting the method. That is abandoning it under pressure. Notice when the lapses happen. Is it the difficult buyer? The deal where you already feel behind? The step that exposes you to rejection? The pattern is not random. It will point straight at the discomfort you are avoiding, if you look. You cannot control whether a deal is easy or hard. You can control whether you run the method anyway. That is the whole matter. Stop asking whether the method works. Ask instead why you only trust it when it costs you nothing.

◆ How this problem reads on the two dials
GuidanceKnowledge
More coaching
A little to learn
1:1 with AureliusWith others (a Pod)
Mostly you & the coach
A little with peers
The person already knows the method; what's missing is honest self-observation and the discipline to apply it under pressure, which is coaching work, not new teaching.
How the two dials adapt to you →
What’s really going on

The method is not inconsistent. You are. You follow it when the deal is easy or the buyer is likable, and you drop it when the deal is hard or uncomfortable. Call that what it is — avoidance, not judgment. Find the step you skip most. That is where the work is.

🔒 What you’ll build togetherUnlock by starting
A moveAfter each deal, write one line: which step did you skip, and what made you skip it.
A moveName the step you avoid most. Do it first, before any other step, on your next three deals.
A moveBefore a hard call, say out loud which step you're tempted to drop. If you can't defend dropping it, don't.
A moveSort your last ten deals into easy and hard. Check whether the method held only on the easy ones.
A moveStop calling the lapse 'judgment' until you can state the rule you broke and your actual reason for breaking it.

What changes unlock by starting

  • You will see exactly which deals and which steps you cut corners on.
  • You will stop mistaking discomfort for discretion.
  • Your results on hard deals improve once you stop skipping the method there.
  • You will have a plain record of your own pattern, instead of a vague sense that you're inconsistent.

Related problems

One object, two jobs: a public answer to a real problem, and — the moment you start the chat — Aurelius’s live plan for your version of it.