Simple Recipe for Overwhelm

Are you in overwhelm?  Trying to track too many things?  Getting lost in the minutiae of running your business, not sure how to prioritize?  I get that way too.  So many good ideas flying by, so many threads to track.  It all comes down to three activities:

Take in.

Connect.

Create.

Take in:  read, learn, study, listen, watch

Connect:  talk, engage, listen, network, be sociable

Create:  express, create product, share, teach

Breathe in

Touch

Breathe out

Inhale

Feel

Exhale

Take in, connect in the moment and with others, and share what you know. 

Learn, market, sell.

If each day you decide:  what you will learn, who you'll connect with, and what you will make available to the world, you will be in balance with the activities to run your business well. 

River as Metaphor

I’ve been standing on the edge of a precipice ready to leap.  Ready to launch a business.  Trained, experienced, planned, ready to go.  Yep, ready to leap.  Anytime now.  It’s been so long it’s become a thing unto itself.  Been parked here for a few years.  Lots of supportive imagery about soaring.  But at the core ... the image of leaping off a cliff makes me viscerally clench.

Time for a new metaphor. 

One that makes me eager to dive in. 

And then I remember.  How silly of me to have ever forgotten.

River as metaphor.  Always.

Same level of commitment, much gentler entry.  

Shoving off from the beach, the friction of the gravel giving way to ease. Turning into the current, flowing easily.  Committed to the journey.  Reading the water ahead, listening to it, respecting it.  Calling commands and ruddering with skill and finesse, the crew providing power to navigate obstacles and turn up the joy.  Together, we find the most fun route.  Pirouetting often, because sometimes I can’t tell my right from my left.  At times a gentle flow, relaxing and serene; other times riding such raw power yelling "waaa-hooo!" and grinning ear to ear.  Only vary rarely getting beat up.  Finding my comfort zone for the level of risk I like.  And at the end of the day, knowing I gave my crew an experience of joy, exuberance, occasionally appreciation of beauty and fun in the midst of bad weather, and always an expansion of what they believe themselves capable of.  

So let’s play with that metaphor.  I have MUCH better associations with gently shoving off at the put-in than the gut-clenching lunacy of leaping off a cliff.  Time to rekindle the whitewater river guide inside...

feeling this intense need to sound wise

When I'm in flow, the ideas that arrive feel brilliant and exciting.  Strategies, tips, awarenesses, perspectives, quotes, fun exercises to create deep learnings.  If I were being lead to these ideas and experiences in seminar, I would be delighted -- so others will too.  

And then I think about how to package it, present it, and sell it -- and flow stops.  Self-consciousness seeps in.  Watching myself as others see me -- or at least as I believe they do -- the Critique Cricket (I just made that up! :) starts chirping.  Not that I expect it to be bad, as my work is usually quite good, but the work is viewed from the point of examining it for flaws to correct.  My father was an engineer, so I learned to see the world from an evaluative viewpoint.  

When I then 'try' to present my ideas in 'the best' way, energetically it moves into a state of seeking approval, rather than staying in the flow of creative inspiration.  It makes sense that I want others to enjoy how I share my ideas -- that the quality and value exceeds their expectations -- but the strategy I'm using isn't working.  

So one way is to capture the ideas when they arrive -- that's where the flow is!  That delicious, creative, joyous ease of source energy flowing through!  It's about my energy, not my words.  So I'll videotape more, audiotape as they arrive, capture that unedited, pure flowing creativity.  "Bottled at the source."  And expanding my trust that it's -- lets say it again -- about my energy, not my words....