Season Of Change - Finding Rhythm In Business

This talk explores the rhythms of life and entrepreneurship and how to integrate a more natural feel to entrepreneurial life. This work has emerged from seeing so many vital, talented entrepreneurs burn out fall into the trap of productivity overload.

Transcript

Let's explore the rhythms of life and entrepreneurship.

We all move through life with toxic narratives of productivity and expectations of responsibility that must be maintained.

Yet we are not designed to live this way,

Let alone work this way.

I want to explore ways in which we can integrate a more natural rhythm into our lives as entrepreneurs.

This talk is a response to the frustration and burnout I see in far too many who want to grow a successful business but fall into the trap of productivity overload.

There is a conflation of consistency with quality in business as though it confers higher standards.

Consistency then becomes a rigid limitation that disrupts unnatural patterns.

I think relevance is a much better benchmark of quality for business when it follows natural principles.

Relevance refers to how appropriate it is for you to be focusing on a particular activity,

Topic or arc of development at any given moment,

As well as relevance of your offers to your audience.

We don't always want to work on some areas of business and there are some very good reasons for this.

Equally there are times when we speed ahead with particular activities and get them done in record time.

There are also very good reasons for this.

It's down to rhythm.

There are four phases to any cycle and some grey areas in between each phase that we all navigate somewhat silently.

These phases are written into our days,

Seasons and years.

They influence how we feel,

What we want to do and how we want to do it.

When we ignore this we push a boulder up a hill but when we attune to it we get to free will at least some of the way.

I work with the elements to understand these phases and what we're primed to do in our businesses in each phase.

The elements are associated with seasons,

Directions and times of day.

Earth is winter,

North and night.

It's a deep energy of preparation.

In this phase we are drawn to working on systems and structure,

Organising our resources to make life easier.

You might go on a big declutter or refresh your systems.

You are unlikely to want to share your work that widely or loudly,

Preferring quiet competence over flashy presence.

Earth is quiet,

Competent,

Accomplished.

It's also deeply creative as it weaves new connections into new ways of solving problems.

This is the equivalent phase of a seed beginning to send down a taproot in preparation for the coming growth.

Air is spring,

East and morning.

It's a curious,

Explorative and expanding energy.

In this phase we are drawn to new ideas and concepts.

We delight in rabbit holes that expose us to novelty and challenge.

Air energy is light and free,

It's unbounded.

This is the energy where dots are connected and ideas weave together to create new possibilities.

This is the equivalent phase of a seed germinating and spreading its new leaves to the sun.

Fire is summer,

South and afternoon.

It's a bold,

Confident energy.

In this phase we are drawn to sharing our passion.

We have the inner fire and courage to speak and grow.

We take action and we roll ahead.

Nothing is an obstacle as we can move over it and find our way forward.

This is the equivalent phase of a flower blooming.

Water is autumn,

West and evening.

It's an internal energy of reflection and connection.

In this phase we are drawn to finding deeper meaning within ourselves,

Our work and our connections.

It's an intimate energy,

Quiet and still,

Whilst also being active beneath the surface.

This is the energy where we grow into the person we're becoming and our business grows into its future.

This is the equivalent phase of a flower setting to seed and preparing to be shed.

You can probably recognise these phases and how they influence your motivation.

We can flow through these phases quickly and slowly.

Sometimes our overall energy is pulling in one direction,

But a particular project or activity is running on a different cycle at a different speed.

That's entirely natural.

You might find yourself berating yourself for not moving forward more quickly with something,

But you also cannot find the motivation to get started or make progress.

We often revert to self-criticism as a default,

But it's much more helpful to start with understanding your rhythms.

Sure,

You may be avoiding the activity,

But you might also just not be primed to make progress right now.

To understand how you navigate natural rhythm,

You can explore your patterns through the day.

When are you most energised?

When are you most creative?

When are you quieter and when do you shut down?

We can go further by exploring the kinds of activities where we're most productive at different times of the day.

This will begin to show you how your creative cycle functions.

When do you enjoy organising?

When do you need free thinking time?

When do you take action without hesitation?

When do you need to reflect?

There is a pattern here to uncover.

It will run through your day.

It will also run through your week,

Determining which activities work best at the start of the week or the end.

The longer you are in business,

The easier you will find it to work out when during the year you're most likely to want to draw in or burst out.

These are your seasons of the creative cycle,

Which is a process or flow of change.

Working with change requires an understanding of how you personally navigate the shifting energies.

Every season change influences where your focus wants to go.

To be truly productive means honouring this shift.

For years I tried to launch programs in January because that's when people are looking for new year solutions,

But it absolutely doesn't work for me.

This is when my energy is creation-focused,

Not delivery-focused.

In May and September though,

It flips.

For years I tried to write on Fridays,

But that doesn't work for me.

Monday to Wednesday is when I need to schedule my creative work because that's where my energy is.

Friday is the beginning of my winter.

Monday is my spring.

January is definitely winter.

May is my summer.

For me,

When I schedule creative work that ignores my rhythm,

It becomes a massive uphill battle where I procrastinate and distract myself.

I get nowhere fast.

Every step you take in business is taking you on a journey of growth.

It's taking you into change.

It's moving you through the creative cycle.

You are always moving through change.

To think that we can be consistent in the same way is hugely damaging to our well-being.

We can be consistent in our presence,

But we need to honour the rhythm of our presence.

This keeps you healthier and more productive.

In time it compounds to a healthier business.

You aren't fighting yourself.

So here are some tips to highlight your rhythm and things you can work on when you are in the right zone.

Look at your business activities and divide them into organisational,

Creative,

Promotional,

Reflective and connecting.

Compare this to when do you enjoy organising,

When do you need free thinking time,

When do you need to take action without hesitation,

And when do you need to reflect.

You can begin to map the activities to your rhythm starting with your day.

So perhaps the first part of your day is creative and the latter part is organisational.

In this case you can start with some creative writing,

Then you would do some marketing,

Then client calls and finish up with some admin.

That follows the natural rhythm of the creative cycle.

You can start anywhere and that will most likely be in your dominant elemental type for your creative expression.

Mine is air,

Which is why creativity comes first,

But if yours is earth then you'll need to do your organisational work first.

If fire you'll need to do your outreach and marketing first,

And for water start your day with connecting to your clients or communities because that's going to be the most nourishing.

Then flow through in order.

Something I have learned through working with this cycle for years is the perils of skipping part of it.

We do this quite naturally because there are parts of the cycle that don't feel entirely comfortable.

For me historically that's been water,

But that's shifting.

I would jump from idea into details which meant I missed out on the reflection piece where the purpose and meaning really got fleshed out.

My solution to this is to utilise a walk with the dog for example as a space in between.

Whilst I might not be working in the conventional sense,

I am ensuring I don't skip an essential step because I can do two things at once and it gives me space to reflect.

Work out which part of the cycle you try to rush through or avoid and create some strategies to build it in.

I must say that for entrepreneurs some of these parts of the cycle might happen while you are not clocked in to your business and that raises an important point.

The creative cycle has no concept of nine to five.

I am not advocating working around the clock,

In fact quite the reverse.

It actually helps to know that you are fulfilling an essential part of your creative cycle in the background.

Something else you might consider which may help you to find your rhythm is the predominant role of your business.

Is it an educator,

An inspirer,

A builder or a connector?

Earth businesses help people solve practical problems.

They're builders.

Air businesses help people solve creative problems.

They're inspirers.

Fire businesses help people step up and create so they are creators.

Water businesses help people find more meaning.

They're connectors.

You may be different to this and it's a blend of your leaning and your business leaning that sparks something unique but what your business needs to be doing is going to have an impact on what you spend the majority of your time doing.

This means you can work out how your rhythm allows you most impactfully to be working on or in your business.

I'm air orientated but my business is fire focused.

This means I spend most of my time helping people to understand how to turn an idea into a reality.

I'm converting ideas into steps.

When I'm not in my business my head is wandering all over the place considering different ideas.

When I am in my business I'm working out how to turn those ideas into practical solutions.

Although my business is fire orientated it's not actually my role to nurture the fire in my clients because they already have it but to direct it.

To do this I have to be in the right phase of my creative cycle and that for me is the middle of the week.

Hence I schedule all my client-facing work and events from Tuesday to Thursday.

Monday and Friday is spent preparing and organizing.

This way I am at my most productive through the week.

That said I also need to adjust for the seasonal influences which is why I do group programs in spring and autumn because this is when the energies are shifting into a new dynamic which fits the overall focus of my business.

To find your rhythm as an entrepreneur ditch the notion that you have to show up in the same way day in and day out because you don't.

You will be more effective productive and impactful if you allow rhythm into your work time.

Observe the natural rise and fall of your energy and listen to your intuitive calls to learn what to focus on when.

Then begin to structure your working day to work for you.

Expand this out to your week then your month and finally your year until you are working in a pattern that feeds you.

Reviews

Thank you. I appreciate the examples and practical steps— I realized that my business is mostly water.