You run your own business and want to be in control of your own destiny.
We hear a lot of buzz words with the latest one being “Disruptive…”
Disruptive technology, disruptive service delivery, disruptive products.
What about disruptive thinking?
- How do you structure your day?
- Tasks to do – time to do your accounts, undertake stock control, coordinate staff
- Contact client A, B, C
- Meetings, agendas, allocate tasks to achieve meeting output , desk work, assemble products, pick/pack/send, email suppliers, follow up outstanding orders, schedule deliveries
- social media posts and videos
- Check on deadlines – ramp up to meet these because your running against the clock
- How do you accept your next job?
- Fit it in, to already too tight deadlines
- Overcommit
- Schedule unrealistic lead time
- If only there was more time…
- Work extra time yourself to achieve what you have promised, because paying overtime to staff is going to cut into your profit
How is this all going for you? Are you grinding away heading to burn-out in the next 6 or 12 months because you accept every job you can, you’re overwhelmed, lack the resources, lack the finances to make it all work. Stress, panic attacks, sleepless nights … no one talks about this but you are feeling, living, experiencing this right now.
So, do I hear you asking should you go back to work for someone else, a big corporate with the safe weekly income, regular (long) hours, unfulfilled, unrewarded.
Or do you ‘disrupt your thinking’?
What if I asked you to plan your day with a completely different mindset – to start your day with a morning routine, a ritual that will become a habit?
You hear a lot about the mindfulness – what is it.
Put simply, it is focussed attention on one thing. That’s right ONE thing.
I use meditation as an example. Meditation is not about having no thought or an empty mind. It is about controlling your thoughts. The negative patterns, the ramblings, the rehash, the predictions, these all serve no purpose and to be honest this constant thinking, worrying and stressing is exhausting. It is no wonder you are mentally fatigued.
Start to control your thoughts through focussed attention. Use a shell, or an unusual rock or a seed-cone from a tree, something that connects you to nature. Then using this one small object start to consider how it arrived into your hand. From the ocean, or the ground as a seed, it grew, developed, evolved. Look at the ridges, the smoothness, feel the roughness, does the light shine from it or off it or even through it in some way? Now breathe – take a deep breath while you consider your object, continue to breathe deeply. Realise that you are ‘at one’ with this object – there is only you and it, nothing else in the world matters right now.
This is the power of mindfulness – it brings you into this present moment, devoid of all other thought. It is that simple!
Running or cycling might work for you. Great – then, do this mindfully. Maintain a single focus on that one task – the motion of the wheels, the rhythm of your feet as you feel the ground and propel yourself forward and breathe. Detach yourself from all other thoughts, feelings and emotions. You and the path or you and the bike are ‘it’.
Consider how this process makes you feel. The aim is to cultivate this mindful habit to become your way of life.
Once you have “disrupted” your thoughts, having a clearer mindset will allow you to more calmly and objectively plan your day to succeed.
Yours in harmony, Julie