It's Fall. Hibernate. Take Time For You.
Recently, it occurred to me that the Indie Business Blog is all about business. That's as it should be I suppose. However, for people who don't know me personally, it may look like I eat, live, sleep and breathe nothing but business. Guilty. Sort of. Well, except when I'm enjoying my new and money saving hobby of hanging around Real Coupon Queen. But I digress.
One of the great things about being Indie is that there is a fantastic overlapping connection between the part of me that works for a living and the part of me that lives for my work. Having said that, I do take time for myself exclusively, and fall is the Season of Me.
Change Is Constant
In life, we start with nothing. As we mature, we invest more and more consciously in renewing and reinventing ourselves. As we move from one season of life to another, especially the many ebbs and flows of Indie Business ownership, our business changes, our family members change, our community changes and the world changes. In order to live the fullest possible life, we must be in a constant state of adaptation to those changes.
Take Time For You
Through it all, we focus so much on helping others adapt that we sometimes forget about our own needs. Of course as Indies who may also be parents, there are times when we must put the needs of others ahead of our own. That’s the nature of the job and also a part of being human. On the other hand, we are not required to disregard ourselves to be good Indies or good parents. We can do all of that if we take the time to “fall into ourselves” – to discover and nurture the things that make us who we are, and who we will be — separate and apart from family, community and the world.
Focus On The Present
This moment in time is the only time you are assured of. Why not do everything you can to enjoy it? Enjoy the content smiles of your children as they snuggle next to you after a warm bath. Relish the moments in the middle of the night when your spouse curves his or her body around yours and holds you tightly. Savor the moments when everyone is away and the business can be on hold so you can enjoy an article from a good magazine or have a sip or two of your favorite chilled wine. Be thankful to be surrounded by the people you love, and the people who love you, including your customers,even when you’d like nothing more than to spend two uninterrupted hours in the tub. (And be sure to do that regularly too!)
Enjoy each moment as it is offered to you.
Aim For Where You Want To Be
As you enjoy the moments and live them to the fullest, don’t forget to use them as steppingstones to the future. Fall deep within yourself and ponder where you want to be after your children and/or your business have matured. My friend Laura is a home manager, wife and mother of 3 children whom she home schools. She is a talented speaker on the topics of time and financial management. One of her gifts is administration, and her organizational and financial management tapes and written materials are some of the most useful I've ever used.
While Laura enjoys helping others to become more organized, she has looked deep within herself and discovered that for now, she feels called to devote only a small amount of time to speaking so she can focus more on family. Even though she rejects many speaking engagement opportunities each year, she remains conscious of where she wants to be in the future.
Each opportunity is weighed to determine where it fits in the grand scheme of things. Laura is more likely to accept a speaking engagement if it complements where she wants to be once her children have left home. Laura enjoys where she is now, but she is also looking to and planning for the future so that no matter what season of life she is in, she's simultaneously being and becoming all that God has called her to be.
Good decisions and sacrifices now make for a good life later.
Employ The Art Of Positive Self-Talk
As you fall into yourself, you may become discouraged or disheartened about some matter in your life. Maybe you have not lost all of that baby weight. Perhaps you don’t feel like you have the time to keep the house as tidy as you’d like or maybe you’re down on life in general because the home budget is stretched thin already and the holidays are fast approaching.
If you are open enough to receive those negative thoughts, why not be open enough to receive some positives ones too? For every negative thought you have, there are at least a ga-billion positive ones to counter it. Why not use the art of positive self-talk to turn a negative moment into a shining event?
To do this, fall into yourself and consider changing the paradigm through which you are viewing each issue that brings about a negative feeling. For example, consider that you can aim to get down to size 8 and in the meantime, still be darned fabulous at size 10 (or 12 or 18 or 20 …)
You may not be able to clean the whole house in a day, but you can make a section of at least one room sparkle from top to bottom and feel good about it. There may have been more time than money left at the end of October but you can still infuse your love into a warm, healthful family meal and be thankful that “this too shall pass.”
Make room in your life to dwell on and celebrate the positive.
Fall Into You
This fall season, practice falling into yourself daily to enjoy who you were created to be for this time in your life and to prune your personal and business goals and aspirations. Enjoy were you are. Envision where you want to be and maintain a constant stream of positive energy to help make the most of each and every day.
