My daughter and I spent hours colouring when she was little. It was one of the things we did together. Uninterrupted time, that was almost meditative. She became very good and coloured within the lines too at quite an early age. I am a very proud mama!
I was reflecting on that this morning, thinking about how often I colour OUTSIDE of the lines these days and how I can reconcile that with my message of ‘get more organised’!
I struggle with this a little bit because I do spend my time helping people get more organised when I’m working. Whilst at the same time I spend my free time reading about flow and amazing life experiences, abundance and working with life’s natural rhythms. You get the picture; if I wasn’t an accountant, I’d be a hippie!
Let me give you an example, I know from listening to my body that I need to finish work at a reasonable time in the evening, so I have some mental and physical downtime. I discuss this in the ‘Principles’ section of the work I do, completely promoting work/life balance, time blocking and being jealous of the free time you have and how you use it. Making time to have the life you want as well as the business you want. But at the same time, I will work late into the evening when I have a project I’m working on and I’m inflow.
How do I reconcile these things? How do I remain authentic in my message of ‘get more organised’ when I’m also living in the flow? Oh, this one has stopped me in my tracks so many times over the last year; stopping me from moving forward and I struggled with what I considered a lack of genuine authenticity, i.e. living what I teach, not just marketing speak authenticity.
And then today it fell into place as it occurred to me, that when you have a strong foundation or the lines of the picture in my analogy you can then be creative and ‘go with the flow’; because the structure, the basics, of the picture are in place.
I spent years and years learning to be an accountant, which is to all intents and purposes colouring but just with numbers! There are very clear boundaries and rules, a structure and a process to follow. Depending on what line of accountancy you specialise in, varying degrees of human interaction!
I then moved into project management, and business process improvement; again bringing order to the chaos but by thinking out of the box, finding simple solutions to complex problems.
Finally getting in touch with my ‘quirky’ and running my own business, forging my path and stepping outside of the norm. After all, we’re a breed unto ourselves, us Solo Business Owners. Stepping outside of the lines!
So yes, go with the flow, listen to your inner wisdom, your gut, your instinct, that is oh so valuable and a powerful way to live; but do it from a place of strong foundations. Understand the general direction you are taking, and then enjoy the detours. See an opportunity and grab it with both hands, knowing your business is structured to allow new adventures because the wheels won’t come off what you’ve already built.
My question then is this, have you drawn the picture of your business? Established the lines and are you comfortable that you are painting the pictures you dreamt of? If not, and it bothers you, then perhaps it’s time to set down the lines, so you can enjoy colouring outside of them!
I love colouring, and I always stay in the lines… Right up until the point when I don’t! You?
