Simmer Down. Slow Your Roll. Chill the Hell Out.
I was talking with Byu-ti founder Natasha Sunshine and Pebblestorm founder Aaron Ross about the “prize” we, as a culture, place on ‘busy-ness.’ Have you noticed? Everyone is “soooooooo busy” !
Time to play is actually a sign of a “rich” business owner – someone who has set up their business to function well without their hand in it every second. We’re all busy – it’s a given – but how you’re busy and what “busy” really means for you, makes a big difference in your day-to-day life.
Natasha Sunshine (right) and I heading to our meeting. This is the new face of Busy-ness.
- If you’re thrashing around in the lake, the water gets muddy. You can’t see opportunities or think straight. Calm water allows clear thinking. In other words, simmer down.
- Busy is not a badge. For much of the time it should be a steady run – not a sprint. If you’re out of breath, you’re not pacing yourself.
- Even at peak busy times, remember to breathe, not hyperventilate. The easiest thing to do is get frenetic and cuckoo. You lose your vision and worse, the solutions you desperately need (plus you’re not fun…ewww.)
- Enjoy your down times and don’t feel you have to always be “doing.”
- Even on the days when you’ve got back-to-back meetings, calls and decisions to make, pause occasionally and decide that you are setting this agenda. You created what “is” in your business and even when it feels manic, or certain things are out of your control, you are still the one in control of the way it goes down.
Ride the momentum you create. Push for busy cycles and then stretches where you enjoy the seeds already planted. You need to recuperate for future accelerations which are better weathered with strategic pauses…which may involve bike rides to stylish restaurants with friends-who-you-also-do-business-with. Kind of like friends with benefits in the grown-up world.
Amy Swift Crosby is the founder of SMARTY, a resource and community for entrepreneurial women in Los Angeles, currently expanding across the country.
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Comments ( 1 Comment )
I love the “Busy is not a badge” comment! I’d much rather say I work part time most of the year and not worry that people think it’s because I can’t make a full time living!
Ann Levine added these words on
Jul 29 09 at
3:32 PM
