A coach said something to me a while back that resonated with me.
As a business owner, your headspace and energy is either committed to building or creating.
Building is executing on what you’ve already planned and created. Delivering. Doing.
Creating is stepping away from the delivery, giving yourself the space and the stillness to ideate, to find new ways forward.
I’ve been guilty lately of trying to do both at once. Same week, sometimes the same day.
What I’m learning is that clarity helps.
- Clarity on how I want to spend my time.
- Clarity on how I prepare for that time, how I want to show up during it, and sometimes how I show up in the days or weeks before it.
That awareness makes a real difference. You’ll still get some things right and some things wrong.
But when you know your reasons for the choices you made, rather than stumbling blindly into something, you’ve a much better chance to learn from it and grow in a way that lasts.
Ultimately, that’s what coaching is all about. Creating awareness, so that you choose your own way forward. Then learn from the experience and the results. And apply those learnings in your future choices.
I see this in a lot of the conversations I have with clients too. People working at real intensity, who then almost collapse the moment they get a bit of space in the calendar. July, August, whenever it lands.
I know that pattern well. I’ve been that soldier myself, in corporate life and in business ownership.
But I also see the other version. People who’ve resourced themselves well through the busy stretches. They come into the quieter periods and there’s a readiness in them to shift into creating, rather than just collapsing into rest.
They’ve earned the chance to use the stillness, not just survive it.
- So if you’re running on empty as the holidays approach, what would help you not arrive there in the same state next time?
- And if you’re well resourced, with some time coming up, what does that equip you to become, or to do?