This past weekend I had my 20 year old son visiting me in Asheville for the first time since my husband and I moved here 15 months ago. I have seen him when visiting MN, but this was the first time showing him around. The lessons I learned are applicable to how you run your business.
When he was visiting, I wanted to make sure that he got to see a lot of things and really experience Asheville. Imagine my surprise when he got off the plane very tired and wanted to take a 3 hour nap!
Lesson for business: How often do you want to show your clients, or potential clients, everything you have, and you haven’t checked in with them first with what they want?
So, I got a chance to chill out and do other things while my son slept.
Lesson: Take advantage when “time” opens up for you. It’s a gift. You might not have wanted it that way, but it is there to take.
I had thought of taking my son to a lot of different places to experience so much. Then I realized that he can come back and see more things.
Lesson: How often in business do you assume that you have to share everything the first moment or everything is lost? I see this often on sales calls. Giving away tons of information, automatically assuming that’s the only chance to connect. Most often, connecting with someone happens over a period of time. It’s great if you find someone who says yes, right away. But most often it is continuous follow up.
We were all set to go ziplining. It was my son’s last day in town. It started to rain in the morning and I had to make the reservations. That’s what he wanted to do. And I decided to go with it. After all, we had decided to do it. What would a little rain do? When we arrived four hours later, the weather had cleared up, and we had the time of our life.
Lesson: How often in business do you have a plan that you have decided on, and something looks like it will throw it off, and it won’t be exactly as you envisioned? And then….you cancel it? It’s about going with the flow, and letting everything unfold. Do what YOU really want to do. Don’t settle.
I’m sharing all these lessons with you (and there are tons more) because this month is really about creating new foundations for yourself.
Bringing balance into your life.
Having more simplicity.
And being aligned with who you are and why you are here.
With this restructuring of some foundational pieces, you will have the opportunity to downsize, simplify, play with your concept of time, and get even clearer on what you really want.
And yes…..have fun in the process.
Life is to be lived. And your business can enhance that. If you consciously let it.
