The Power (and Fear) of Reinvention.

The best businesses are always reinventing themselves, going down different roads, trying new products, adding new services. And by reinventing, I mean expanding on what they already are. Almost like a stone thrown into a lake, it keeps expanding in different directions.

I call my own re-inventions “explorations and expeditions.” If I get an idea, I pretty much go with it in an entry level program.

I ideate and activate.

Activation can be hard for a lot of people because we are taught as young children not to take action, that we need permission from some authority figure.

When you train young folks to always ask for permission, you rob them in adulthood of the ability to take their own action.

I’ve never understood that philosophy. Sure, you will “control” folks better, but is that good down the life road?

If people of all ages are in love with what they are doing, you don’t need to control them because they are going full throttle with what sets them on fire.

If you bore them to death, then you might feel the need to control what is actually them fighting to stay alive. They feel you trying to stomp out their fire and like any creature, the will to live is stronger. They want to live in ways that are authentic to them, if only adults could see that.

Over-domestication takes something important away from all of us, something we need to find your own kind of success rather than the one dictated to us by others.

It also makes us fearful about most everything.

Now as a business owner, you may have a fear of branching out into something new and be bombarded by the crazy person that lives in your head with a barrage of fearful “What ifs?”

What if it fails?
What if no one sings up?
What if I lose some money?

I’ve experienced all three at times. I consider them learning adventures and keep going. Sometimes, the program didn’t fail, it just needed a name tweak or date tweak. Then it takes off! For example, one of my on-line classes had low enrollment all the time. I took a comment made by a participant, tweaked one of the weeks and poof! the enrollment tripled for the next offering.

Perhaps, counter your over controlled self with, but “What if I don’t try?”

When you get to the end of your life, I can almost guarantee you will be more upset with what you didn’t try that what you did.

Life is exploration, expedition and experiment. Once I figured that out, I leapt out of bed in the morning raring to see what I could unfold for myself.

Give yourself permission to move in new directions with your business. You don’t need your idea countersigned by someone else. Just take a chance and see where it goes.

All great companies started with an idea that was activated.

If you don’t activate your ideas, what might the world be missing out on?

Fearlessly Yours,

Giulietta

ps. check out my fun one night program, Wild Writing, Women and Wine, in Ashland, Friday, June 15th, 6 to 8:15 pm.

http://www.giuliettathemuse.com/life-shops/wild-writing-women-and-wine/

Hustling often has this dark connotation, like you are out on the streets doing shady things in the underbelly of some dingy city. But it also can have a good side because it means you are out promoting yourself and by association your business.

Here is a definition when used as a noun:

noun

1. 1.
   busy movement and activity. “the hustle and bustle of the big cities”
2. 2.
   NORTH AMERICAN. informal
   a fraud or swindle.

It’s interesting, but when I don’t hustle my business sags, when I hustle it does really well.

Answer? Hustle smart. You shouldn’t be working like a dog, you should be experimenting with what does and doesn’t work and abandoning what drags you down or eats up your time or doesn’t feel inspiring to your soul.

In other words, figure out what you want in your business and go for it in a strategic way. (more…)

Most business owners work, work work. Even play gets somehow turned into work. But are you actually getting things done during the work, work, work phase? Reports show that in an eight hour day, most employees work about three hours. The rest of it is taken up with eating, texting, searching for new jobs. Lots of diversions that don’t necessarily make us feel good because they are not quality downtime or even considered downtime.

What if you realized you blow a lot of good time and instead decided to carve out that time to do something you really wanted to do?

Parents can feel guilty doing anything for themselves. Business owners can be feel guilty not being available 24/7 for clients. Employees can feel guilty for not looking like they are uber-working even if they are actually working.Why don’t we just admit that humans need quality downtime and that is a good thing? And if we live in a nation of overschedulers, something many learn in the crazed school system with its ringing of the Pavlovian Bells and constant learning metrics, why not schedule it in?

Try scheduling quality downtime into your week. There are 168 hours in a week and 10,080 minutes in a week. Certainly, you can start out by carving out 10 hours for your own rejuvenation?

If you add up all the time you spend doing things you don’t even care about, it will astonish you. Try doing this for even one day. And a lot it occurs during times you have convinced yourself you need to be productive or a working as an employee or on your business. (more…)