Delays, Detours & Re-routings: Go with the Flow
April 24, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
In light of the recent Icelandic ash incident and all the news about stranded travelers; it reminds me that we have little control over what happens to us. It’s what we do about what happens to us that really makes the difference. The news was filled with irate travelers who were ‘stuck’ in Vegas for a few extra days. Hmmmm, millions dream of being here, yet some were outraged they had to spend some extra time here. Maybe they were out of money. It’s all about managing your expectations.
Being a seasoned traveler as a Professional Speaker and former Outdoor Adventure Director in Europe, I was on the road or in the air 3-8 times per month every single month for over 20 years. I’ve had my share of delays and detours. As an experienced entrepreneur for about 14 years, I’ve had my share of re-routings in that arena as well.
The best advice I can give comes from a couple friends. One said to me, if I was planning on traveling to Rome, had my heart set on it, packed for it, learned some Italian phrases and bought the guidebooks. And my flight was re-routed to Paris and I ended up spending the trip in France instead, what would I do.
Would I spend the entire time in Paris lamenting that I wasn’t in Rome, or would I re-group, assess the situation and remind myself I’m in a wonderful place on a wonderful adventure and then start enjoying Paris on the fly and be more spontaneous and figure it out as I went, asking for help, directions and recommendations as I went along.
It’s the same way with being an entrepreneur, we can’t have every single flight path planned out before we even start. We need to loosen our grip, go with the flow, enjoy Paris if that’s where our path leads us, even though we may have had our sites set on Rome. Enjoy the journey, make course corrections when we can, have a plan, but scrap it if it isn’t working. Delays and detours are bound to happen, we need to just be fluid to them and keep moving forward.
Another friend once said she saddles the horse in the direction it’s going. It’s much easier to work with what is moving in that direction, preferably forward. As a former horse owner, I also know it’s much easier to put the saddle on correctly and sit facing forward – the views are much better.
So the next time your path takes you off course, ask for directions, be spontaneous enough to figure it out and enjoy the views while you’re there. You just may discover something new and exciting that you were supposed to learn.
Balance & Boundaries for Energized Entrepreneurs
March 19, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
We do it to ourselves. We are our own task masters and sometimes work ourselves harder than any boss would ever dare to do. It begins with our out-dated thought process that we have to get all our work done before we can play. Here’s the first clue – we will never get all our work done. There will always be more.
It starts with a DECSION. A decision that we set boundaries on our time, boundaries for when others can contact us, boundaries on when we start and stop work each day and how we want to live our daily life.
I live in the Pacific time zone and used to be at the computer by 6am because the East coast was up and working and I didn’t want to miss a sale. The problem was I also worked until 6pm for the West coast folks. I didn’t have time for myself and didn’t have balance because I didn’t have boundaries.
Once I DECIDED to not allow others into my life before 10am, or Monday mornings and Friday afternoons; I found more balance with more boundaries. Instead of me moving my schedule around to meet other people’s schedules, I just stated my schedule and allowed them to meet my criteria for connecting. I now have Me Mondays – I can do anything I darn well please that morning so I can ease into my week. It can be personal or professional development or a pedicure.
Often it’s when I create my content, create and send greeting cards to connect with others via mail (it puts me in a good mood to send positive energy to others), dream my big dreams and visualize what I want to do with my work to serve others better. My mornings are my creative time and I need to honor my own bio-rhythms to capture that most important time of the day. Otherwise I’m too brain-dead in the evening to be creative and the dreaming and creating won’t get done. What works best for you? When are you most creative and when are you brain dead – work around those boundaries for more balance.
Fun Fridays are currently just the afternoon, but it will be moving into a full-blown day to reconnect and socialize with friends or just have fun and be creative, explore, discover and meet new people and try new things to expand my world. We cannot be Energized Entrepreneurs, if our energy tank is on E. We must fill up our tanks before we can have it to give out.
Guard your energy as fiercely as you would an appointment with anybody else. You can’t give what you don’t have. You need to take care of you so you can give out the best you possible and serve your clients to the best of your ability. You can’t do that if you’re tired, cranky, feel overwhelmed, stressed out and burnt out. Decide how you want to live your life and work your business and then do it. You are your own boss.
For our readers, I’m offering a free Special Report on Energizing Your Work, Wealth, Workplace & Well-being. Send me an email toGail@GailHahn.comand put Special Report in your subject. Grab other free articles atwww.Funcilitators.com.