I have three big priorities in my life: Biz, Book and Body. I’m growing my business, writing my second novel and losing weight. They all take focus and action. And even though, I coach writers to find time to write, and people are always advising me to put my health first, I know that I always – without fail – put my business first.
Decoding Creativity is my first love. It is the undertaking that uses all my skills and engages all my effort. In my head, it’s a bike metaphor – the balance, the hands, the steering, the pedals, the road, and the people watching – bike riding requires you to coordinate all those elements to ride. In business, it’s products, clients, speaking, blogging, and FB strategies. It’s all those piece-parts that you’re trying to get into the magical balance that suddenly and thrillingly means you’re riding your bike.
Like a lot of coaches, I’ve been absolutely desperate to get it up and riding for such a long time. I dream of the day, that is promised by each of the many Internet marketing courses I’ve paid for, when I can coast. When will all the systems work together and make my business easy? I’ve long wondered.
For a couple of reasons – moving being one of them – I decided to coast, now. Before I had the bike balanced. I’m taking a long break (I imagine myself, pumping the coaster brake on my big blue Schwinn of my childhood) from endeavoring constantly on behalf of my business. I’m still doing the things that are already up and running – like running scheduled webinars, showing up at my speaking engagements, and serving my existing clients – but I stopped making my business my raison d’etre.
I put Book and Body ahead of Business in the pecking order. Probably for the first time in many years, my focus and critical skills go to my writing. When I sleep, my brain works on plot decisions, instead of marketing ideas. When I have a spare moment, I chop some vegetables or go for an actual bike ride. It is wonderfully light.
This past few weeks, we’ve gotten our house on the market and I’ve written the first hundred pages of my new novel. I’ve started Aquatic Fitness classes again and I’m feeling balanced. Not surprising, right? You make a shift in focus, and things change, right? In the same 8 weeks, I’m thinking about my business model, and hoping to see what piece-part is out of whack. I hope when I begin pedaling again, it will be to the right audience with the right products, with the right systems and excellent results. But I’m still in the middle of this shift, and I can’t yet see where we’ll all end up. I’m balanced, writing and moving.
Once in awhile, I have to take my own advice and trust the world to hold me up. It is not about my super human efforts. It is about being, and trusting that I know how to ride a bike, and I’ll ride when I’m ready.