Animals, Business, and Spirit
May 27, 2008
In this week’s The Confident Marketer e-zine, I talk about pelicans and the four key business traits they taught me last week. (To get the e-zine, click on the subscribe link to the right). One of my dogs, Jake the Tough Boy, taught me how to yawn and loosen up my jaws – useful when I wake up with clenched teeth. Another of our dogs, Phoebe the Huntress, reminds me to lay on my back and stretch a few times a day. (Dogs, by the way, will lay on their back with paws in the air to give themselves an adjustment to their spine!)
Years ago, I peered into a microscope in a high school lab, and got a lesson in the value of persistence. As I stared at a hydra-headed little being, I obeyed the teacher’s instructions to cut off one of the heads. I quickly saw that the tiny creature immediately grew another head and went on its merry way. I remember watching how easily it just went off in another direction and did its thing. Totally adaptable, without complaint, it lived its little hydra life.
One of our very beloved dogs, P.V. Cousteau, taught my husband and I the value of indomitable spirit and the virtues of play. Cousteau, as you might guess, had a thing for water and another thing for balls. For seventeen and a half wonderful, happy years Cousteau found a way to put play into the most mundane of household tasks. The minute I pulled out our vacuum cleaner he ran for his ball, delightedly dropping it in front of the vacuum, knowing I would soon have to shove it out of my way. It was a great game to him. To Cousteau, folding laundry become a game of quickly dropping his ball in the middle of whatever I was folding, then waiting until I impatiently flicked the ball out of my way.
We limit ourselves when we think we can only learn from other humans. Animals get on with life, self-care, and their business without complaint and efficiently. Be curious and watch. You’re sure to learn something from an animal that serves the business of your life.
Recreate to Create New Business
May 18, 2008
Are you at a dug-in, down-in-the-dirt stuck place with your business? Summer is all but here, and your mind is turning to the beach, t
he mountains, or your mama’s front porch. Would you like an excuse to take an extra vacation this summer? Here’s the truth of the matter:
- You need to go on a personal retreat!
Yep, that’s right. One way to radically change your thoughts (which we know affect feelings, which in turn drive your actions, which then become results) is to give yourself a change of environment. Why?
- Chances are you are hanging around people who are not positively supporting you right now.
- It’s a good bet that you are tired of “thinking about it,” whatever the issue is.
- Your routine of daily life currently is not supporting your moving ahead. In other words, you are stuck in a rut.
Here’s the five-step action plan for you:
- Go alone, you don’t want to have to serve anyone but yourself right now.
- Pack your briefcase with the materials you need to work on the stuck place.
- Take along at least one new book you’ve bought but have not read (it can be a business book or fiction, doesn’t matter.)
- Give yourself a minimum of three days (that means four nights away, no cheating and taking a half day at either end for travel).
- Set an intention to rest, recreate, and let your mind wander.
Now, go make a reservation someplace and get gone. If you are harboring negative and guilty thoughts, remind yourself that you are the shepherd of your business and your soul, and right now for whatever reason they both need attention. A friend of mine, Annie Wills, calls this “radical self care.” I call it a good reason for some extra time at my own favorite place, which is anywhere with an ocean view.
Say “recreate” with a slightly different emphasis and you’ll realize it is re-create. You need to re-create something in your work, and in yourself. That takes a little time out. No reason to feel guilty about that, is there?
Let me know where you go and what you got accomplished. Send a picture, even. I won’t be surprised at the positive changes, but you might be!
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