Thrive, what does it mean to you?
The last 6 years have been tough, a mixture of personal challenges, an unsettled economic climate (to put it politely) and world unrest. I've been floundering around a bit (a lot) and I've watched other artists, creatives, sole traders and small businesses flounder around in a similar way as life has squeezed us from all directions. I started to feel out of control, a shadow of my former self. Decision making got harder, I lost my creative mojo and some new physical limitations mean I'm having to accept I can't do what I used to (at least not at the moment.)
For the first time ever I'm having to plan ahead (and shudder) try to pace myself. This is no easy task for someone who, as my husband says, is either running around at full speed or in bed with a migraine. There is no middle ground, there never has been! My pattern is burn myself out, have a few days in bed (really poorly and swearing I'll make changes) and then start the whole cycle over again. But this is no longer working, the 3 days in bed don't fix me anymore. I'm not bouncing back like I used to and a long term health condition has come knocking. I'm not a regretful person at all, but I also don't want to meet the definition of insanity which is doing the same thing over and over again with the same outcome. It's time to meet my weird belief that being busy defines my worth head on!
I've sat and thought properly about what I want my future to look like. I've noticed how intrinsically intertwined myself and my business are and that if I'm struggling my business struggles. I am my biggest business asset! Totally obvious I know, but something I've not really paid attention to, and something I don't feel other people I know acknowledge either. That little 'ping' of realisation has come as a bit of surprise. Acknowledging myself as my business's most important investment has, work wise, given me permission to step back and start to explore firstly how I make myself feel better, and secondly how that will in turn sustain and support my business.
This is not going to be the frantic sprints I'm used to, this is going to be a very slow marathon (maybe in a giant duck costume?). On my journey so far I have found some amazing people who have been generous with their time and patient in their approach. I've worked with and talked to physiotherapists, nutritionalists, creative practitioners, CBT therapists, play therapists, sports coaches, sound therapists and fellow business owners to name a few. As I chatted to them I realised how lucky I was to have access to their knowledge, wisdom and expertise. I also realised I:
love to chat to people
love connecting people who might be able to help each other
love seeing other people's businesses thrive
love being around people
love ideas generation (especially around other people's work)
and most importantly....
would love to help prevent other people from reaching the burnout stage!
Light bulb moment! And that, as they say was that, Thrive was born...