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A Familiar Story, New Focus

by EvieBurke, posted in attitude, Gratitude

Has anyone ever told you a story you’ve heard many, many, many times before? You know it pretty well, but this time, the person telling it focuses on a different part or puts the emphasis in a different spot and suddenly the whole story is changed for you.

I had this experience in church on Sunday. The story was how Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Normally, the focus of this story is that all 5,000 people were fed and there was food left over.

However, when Pastor Grace told this story on Sunday, she asked “What if the miracle wasn’t that everyone was fed? What if the miracle was that they gave thanks for the little that they had?” These questions completely changed the way I heard and viewed the story.

Have you heard of the term “lack mentality”? Basically, it describes coming from a place of lack, a place (or feeling of) of never having enough and always needing more or fearing that something might not be available when it’s really needed. When someone is coming from a place of lack two things tend to happen:

  1. You never have enough
  2. You miss or under-appreciate what you do have

When you reframe the story by asking “What if the miracle was that were thankful for what they had?” it shifts the story somehow. You notice that they weren’t focusing on what they lacked. Instead, they appreciated what they did have when it would have been perfectly natural to do otherwise.

And thinking about all of this naturally leads to the next questions: “What are you focusing on?” and “What are you thankful for?”

What does this have to do with your business? What does it have to do with getting things done? It has everything to do with both of those things. In our businesses we tend to notice when we don’t have enough clients, money or time. Yes, it’s important to recognize when those things are a problem, but we often do it without noticing that we also have things to be thankful for.

You focus on needing more clients, but aren’t grateful for the ones you have. You  focus on a goal that wasn’t met, but don’t recognize the progress you made toward the goal. I could go on and on, but you get the point.

So, instead of focusing on how little money, time or whatever that you have (or don’t have), what if instead you spent that time (and energy) focusing on how wonderful it is that you do have some money, time or whatever? How would that shift your view? Your attitude? Your business? How would that shift your story?

First Week Back, Did You Plan?

by EvieBurke, posted in planning

Vacations – they’re wonderful things, right? They’re a time for you to disconnect from your business and reconnect with yourself and maybe your family (if you invited them 😉 ).

The other week I wrote about how great vacations are. And behind the scenes I planned for my vacation by putting together my newsletters in advance, catching up on those “to read” emails and setting up my out-of-office auto-responder.

I also planned to spend an hour or two on my last day of vacation, or on the plane, planning my first week back home. Wait… I planned to do a bit of work on vacation? I could go on to list the reasons why that was a bad idea or the reasons *cough*excuses*cough* why it didn’t actually happen, but I’ll spare us both that.

Instead, I’ll say, for all my planning for vacation, I didn’t plan my first week back very well.

In retrospect, I could have planned my first week back at work before I left – even if it was a brief written outline of rest, laundry and morning routine. Instead, my week was spent sleeping and thinking about what needed to be done and breaking one of my own rules about writing things down instead of leaving them to bounce around in my head.

The plus side of that week was being well rested and readjusted to my time zone. And I have a reminder of what happens when I don’t plan.

Saturday I started writing things down again and that kick started me into planning my second week home. I did two things that got me back in the swing of things:

  1. I recreated a morning routine. Some things were missing from the morning routine I had before I left, so I created a new one for myself. This was probably the best thing that I did for myself. Your morning routine can set your tone for the day.
  2. Created a list of the things I wanted to get done. It was a brief list of about 10 tasks (tasks, not projects). That gave me specific things to do each day, instead of spending 15 minutes trying to remember what the highest priority task was, and then getting overwhelmed and frustrated and doing something else entirely.

So, when you’re planning your next vacation away from your business, don’t forget to plan for your first week back. It will help your re-entry go much smoother!

PS. If you’re currently stuck try the two steps above.

What Our “If Only’s” Tell Us About Ourselves

by EvieBurke, posted in attitude, Complaining

Girl ThinkingEver had any of these thoughts?

If only I was:

  • Smarter
  • Faster
  • Skinner
  • Younger
  • Older
  • Prettier / more handsome
  • Taller
  • Shorter

Or maybe you’ve had one of these thoughts?

If only I had more:

  • Time
  • Money
  • Free time

You’ve probably had some of these thoughts before and there are probably a few “If only’s” that you have (or had) that aren’t listed, I know there are for me. The most popular ones (according to Google’s autofill search) are time and money.

Are “If only I had more time” or “if only I had more money” phrases that you find yourself saying or thinking on a regular basis?

I bet you don’t really want more time or money. No, really – think about it. When you say or think those things (time, money or otherwise), isn’t there usually a “then I could…” at the end of it or a mental picture of what life would be like if you did have it?

So, do you really want more time, money or whatever it is for you? Or do you want the things that having more of that would allow you to have or do?

For time you might say “If only I had more time, then I could get so much more accomplished in a day.” What you really want is to get more done. You want to have a few more completed items on your to-do list. Right?

When you find yourself saying “If only…”

  1. Ask yourself what it is you really want. What is the “then I could…” that follows?
  2. How can you have a bit more of what you really want right now? It might not look exactly like your ideal, but you can probably take some small steps toward making your ideal a reality.

What’s one of your “if only..” phrases? And what is it that you really want?

The Value of Vacation

by EvieBurke, posted in balance

Alaskan SunsetRemember that poll I wrote about a few weeks ago? One of the questions was about having a balance of personal and business time. At that time, I didn’t share the answer of one woman who felt that she doesn’t have balance right now, because she puts in long hours at work.

Despite her long hours, or perhaps because of it, she knew how important it was to take days off and vacation. She said that when she starts to feel burned out, she takes a day off.

When was the last time you did that? Has it been a while?

I’ve noticed that for myself and my clients, sometimes needing a day off shows up as procrastination. You’re tired and your brain might be a bit fried so [insert your task here] just doesn’t get done. Instead you might find yourself checking email and Facebook a lot (or whatever your distractions look like).

The other thing she said was that she and her husband take a vacation once every three months. I didn’t ask her how long the vacations were or where they go, but I’m guessing her vacation is at least 2-3 days away, if not more.

When was the last time you went on vacation? When did you last leave your business for more than a day, or weekend? Has it been a while?

Leaving your business for any period of time can be stressful for entrepreneurs. What will happen when we’re gone?!

You know what will happen while you’re away from your business if you allow it? You’ll relax and you might even enjoy yourself. And when you go back to work you’ll have more energy and ideas than before you left.

So, when is your next day off or vacation?