I’m sat watching the birds in the garden, planning to journal, but instead was inspired to write a blog post. It feels like I haven’t written one in forever as I’ve been focussing on editing my book.
However, watching the birds this morning reminded me of something I share in
Sacred Selling: Foundations for an Aligned, Abundant Business
and that is:
The myth of when…..then……
I’m sure you’re familiar with it:
When my business is making more money, then I’ll hire an assistant.
When work calms down then I’ll take some time off.
As I watched a small sparrow this morning flying off with a feather to build a nest I wondered if it was ever shackled by when…then…
Had it already found a mate? Or was it was building a nest regardless?
Of course, birds don’t have the same hang-ups as us. They simply go about their day foraging for food, building a nest, attracting a mate, looking after their young. They are constantly vigilant, looking around assessing their surroundings – aware of everything around them. Eating for a few moments then flying off, before returning to repeat the process. I love watching them.
And they teach me a lot.
They live in the present moment, doing the things they need to do today. They don’t worry that a predator might come next week and wipe their whole family out.
Intuitively, they know what to do – and when to do it. Right now, they’re building nests, attracting mates. Soon they will be rearing their young. There’s a time and a season for everything and each species is different. Baby birds are hatched when the food they eat is most plentiful – for example, blue tits lay their eggs so that the chicks hatch when caterpillars are abundant. Crossbills hatch their chicks much earlier in the year, when pine cones are out.
What does this have to do with business?
Two things:
1. It’s a reminder to be present.
It’s important to focus on where we’re at now. For example, if we’re focussing on building foundations and not increasing sales, we don’t have to stress if sales are down. Instead, we can trust that once the foundations are in place, sales will soar (assuming we have a robust sales process in place of course).
Just like the blue tits know that food will be available for their young – we know that income will flow.
2. We’re all different
There’s nothing to be gained in comparing ourselves with a different breed of business owner thinking we should be running our business like them. Or that we should be where they are.
A blackbird doesn’t look at a robin wondering why she doesn’t have a red chest. She doesn’t think there’s something wrong with her because she’s smaller than a pigeon. She doesn’t feel guilty that she’s bigger than other birds. She simply goes about her day being a blackbird, doing the things blackbirds do.
A robin doesn’t look at a blackbird wishing he were bigger and thinking his bright red chest is too much. He simply goes about his day, being a robin, staking his territory.
If we’re to feel fulfilled and nourished by our business, it’s vital we let go of looking at other business and feel lack because we’re not where they are. In truth, they have just as many challenges as we do – they just have different challenges. Or maybe they’re grappling with the same challenges we are – we simply don’t know it.
We humans have this tendency to look around and think that others are happier, more successful yet in truth we all feel a range of emotions each and every day. We can be feeling joyful and happy one moment and sad the next, depending on what’s going on in our world.
Likewise in business, there are times we experience success, times we experience failure. Both are essential parts of our business evolution.
We grow and expand through all our experiences – yet we tend to label success as “good”, and failure as “bad”. If we can shift our perspective and simply experience both in the way we would if we were riding a rollercoaster without labelling them, we enjoy all aspects of business.
Business is fluid – ever changing and the more we can embrace the whole of it – the happier – and freer we become.
Ah what learnings from a tiny sparrow going about its day building a nest.
What can you learn from nature as you go about your day today?
And if you enjoyed this blog post you’ll love my book:
Sacred Selling: Foundations for an Aligned, Abundant Business
Click on the link below to find out more:
