Didn’t the lockdowns teach us a lot?
We all had to act quickly and make massive changes in a very short space of time. But what did we learn from it?
I was really surprised by a few things that came to light for me – how little I had been recognising the pleasures from the small things in life and how we are just as susceptible to burnout even when we’re working from home.
I was reminded that coming from a place of fear and worry can make you act and behave in a way that may not be in your best interests. Like most of the population, I was worried about being able to financially support myself.
I reverted to old behaviours and threw myself into marketing my business and planning alternative ways to earn a living. I was full steam ahead for a whole month, including weekends.
Fortunately, it paid off and I was able to help my clients get to the next level and grow my business at the same time. But there was a cost and a valuable learning for me.
I’ve been through a burn out before (you can watch my burnout story here) and I spent the first 2 years in my business helping others to recognise it, recover and make changes in their working lives to create more balance and wellbeing.
Pushing myself like this - digging deeper and striving for more – was feeling very familiar and definitely not in a good way!
My guides and angels were giving me clear guidance in my daily meditations to ‘have more fun’. ‘Have more fun?! I don’t have time for that!’ was very much my first thought. I paid attention to the guidance though and started making more time to do more fun stuff. Not that it was possible to go and do much lol!
We’ve all had to get inventive at home haven’t we? I found simple pleasures – baking and sharing it with my neighbour, FaceTiming friends and family (why don’t we do that anyway?), watching the birds in the garden, finding little things online I could send in the post to people, writing little stories, taking my meditation practice outside in the amazing sunshine we had.
Simple pleasures that encouraged me to slow down and lean into positive, loving vibes instead of the fear and worry made the world of difference to my wellbeing, flow of my business and outlook for the future.
It also gave me much needed headspace to reflect, review and reset. It’s a simple self-coaching practice we can all do where you ask yourself 3 simple questions:
1. What needs to stop?
2. What needs to start?
3. What needs to stay?
Don’t over think it or try to come up with your ‘forever’ plan. Just go with what comes to mind, for now.
I thought more about the guidance of ‘having more fun’ and it got me thinking about applying more of that principle to my business and my work, especially as it is my main focus in my life; it’s my baby.
It’s not just about having fun and doing fun things for me, it’s also about having more of a sense of fun in how I do things. My long term goal involves a lot of activities I’ve never done before and it feels scary and impossible a lot of the time, but if I go with the mindset of anything is possible and approach each new step with one of curiosity and wonder, knowing that I’m always safe and well, how much more fun would that be?
And when we’re having more fun, we’re happier aren’t we?
And when we’re happier, anything seems possible!
Take care and have fun,
Jen