Here we are, all starting a New Year. After the holidays, some time off, and some planning, you are poised at the starting line, ready to run the race, right? You are rested, you’ve got a plan. This is it. Ready. Set. Zoom.
Oh, but wait a minute. Let’s rewind a bit. What was the value to your business and goals of that time off ? Isn’t it odd how not directly thinking about your business actually seemed to help you come up with new ideas? There is more to time off than getting your body rested. It actually gives your brain some space to process all those complex plans and ideas you working on.
Our brains can only process so much at a time (6 – 8 things), and yet many, many things have more variables than that. Things like your ‘plan’ for your business.
One of the ways I look at this is in making a distinction between the idea and the action. If our ideas and actions don’t align, we get really wonky results. If we just sit around and think, nothing happens. And if we zoom around doing without clarity of purpose, weird things happen. Things that are unexpected and probably not wanted.
You may feel like you’ve done all the contemplating and planning you need, and now all you have to do is zoom into action. Unfortunately, it’s not a onetime thing. We need to keep both the action and the ideas flowing. We need to let them ‘inform’ each other.
You know, that silly balance thing!
One of the ironic things about the ideas part is that it needs more than sitting down and analyzing. It needs processing time. Part of processing time for your brain is sort of like taking it off line. Letting it rest. In actuality, it’s not resting when you are taking a walk, meditating, doing art, gardening, or even sleeping. During those activities your brain is doing the deeper work on the complex stuff.
So, as you start the new year, decide what kind of race you want to run. Or even if you want it to be a “race” at all.
My best suggestion is to actually plan and honor ‘down time’ in amongst all the doing. Give yourself the time and space to catch up, slow down and restore.
Recognize that being a Doing Demon that never stops doing is just as detrimental as being a slothful couch potato that never starts doing.
Most aspects of business work better with consistency rather than huge swings. Do your bookkeeping regularly instead of annually when you can’t remember what happened, and can’t find things. Do you marketing consistently, not just when you don’t have clients. Do your filing periodically, instead of in a big pile. Do your work in balance with your rest and play.
Just maybe instead of Ready, Set, Zoom you might consider Plan, Take Action, Rest and Restore….repeat on a more periodic basis, say monthly instead of annually?
Ka-ching
Shell