Could creativity and playfulness be the easiest way to build your business?
“I like to be playful; I want people to look at what I do and smile.” ~ Patrick Cox
I have heard from a number of clients and the verdict is in: January sucked.
For many, their cauldron of ick was comprised of post-holiday malaise, brutal winter weather, being down with COVID, and feeling the painful gap between the sparkly goals and aspirations set early in the month and the cold reality of not having yet arrived.
It has been a lot to handle. Lots of folks have wanted to crawl back into bed and not venture back out until spring.
But when I look at my entrepreneur coaching clients who are absolutely rocking every aspect of their businesses and personal lives, there is a definitive through line in their thinking and behavior: playfulness + believing in possibility.
They’ve also dealt with typical winter funk, illness in their families, and the occasional bout of overwhelm, but by and large, they have stayed seated into their joyful selves and maintained a relaxed, exuberant mindset.
And what’s happening as a result of how they are framing each circumstance in their life is fascinating.
Managing Our Awareness
I have heard stories of out-of-the-blue support and chance encounters, unexpected income, serendipity, exciting epiphanies, and almost daily reminders of just how benevolent the universe truly is.
Gifts and magic around every corner.
None of us escapes challenges, runs of bad luck, and garden variety mind funk. The difference between who gets back up on the pony faster and stays in the saddle longer versus those who stay knocked off comes down to how we manage our awareness and energy in the present moment.
I know how incredibly hard this is especially when difficulties come in waves and stack up in hideous and foreboding towers. We can feel as if we are under attack, and our minds will broadcast every fear in our repertoire.
We can try to loosen the grip of anxiety by choosing all work and no play, believing duty, obligation, and responsibility will let us outrun our fear.
We understand WORK. It is our go-to barn. Our place of comfort and familiarity. And, oddly, our place of self-punishment. Withholding love from ourselves. From others.
We hold play at bay. When we finish this or accomplish that. When we’ve hit our goals, found our way, enjoyed success. We’ll be happy THEN. When we’ve gotten what we dream of.
Besides, we think and say, who’s got time for play? Can’t you see the mile-long To-Do list in front of us and all the evidence of how far behind we are? How everyone else is running laps around us while we are stuck and steeped in self-doubt?
From this stance, we will not reach our goals. Taste what we crave.
How do we cross the moat of self-doubt and fear and leave the shores of a life that has collapsed in on itself?
Through adventure. Play. Fun.
Through making and creating.
Reclaim Creativity to Build Your Business
Trust me, I know the howls of disbelief that are most likely erupting from your exhausted soul. I have absolutely been there and know the reactive, cynical scoffing. What I am saying, after all, goes against everything we’ve ever been taught. Everything our culture reinforces.
We get ahead through self-sacrifice, hard work, and delayed gratification. Right?
While, of course, hard work is required on the path to success and freedom, it is merely one ingredient.
The recipe is rounded out by doing the deep work of getting to the core of who you are and reclaiming your inspired creativity.
Money and markets do not respond to our being crimped off from joy and closed off from our true selves.
Money and markets, however, do adore bold, decisive action rooted in playful, spontaneous energy.
We’re all seeking freedom. Freedom to be who we truly are. Freedom to do work we love and succeed. Freedom to live the art of our uniqueness and become indelible in the marketplace.
How can you dig into the rich soil of you?
How do you, for once and for all, get beyond what has always held you back?
How do you transform from being invisible to in-demand?
Let’s ditch stifling obligation, heaviness, and duty. Instead, let’s embrace adventure and enjoy flow, ease, and real-world traction.
