Currently and over the last few weeks it feels like I’m on the edge of something. I’ve been working long hours on my business and there are elements that are finally fitting into place. However, there are other areas that are in complete chaos. I have a creative brain and this means that while i’m working on one project my uber creative inner ‘Katherine’ is quietly squirrelling away on an entirely different project, the net result is nothing ever gets completed. So, enough is enough and I need to quieten that inner voice to allow my current projects the space they deserve.
Those of you with what I call BBS (Bouncy Brain Syndrome) like me, will totally get this, others like my OH can not understand why I can’t ever finish a job. With a young family I have limited time so, like most of us, I try to cram 4 days work into 6 hours. Now, ambition is a wonderful thing but not when it is building you up for a fall, which most days it feels like it is. There are strategies I have put into place to help me achieve my goals and I wanted to share them with you.
Firstly, I am learning to schedule time for me to just ‘think’. This may sound strange but we are moving through life at 100mph and I for one need to slow down and just allow my thoughts to evolve. There are a few ways I do this. If I’m trying to do something and I’m being distracted by internal innovations, I simply write them down to come back to later, then continue with the job in hand. This allows the idea to be parked and not forgotten. It does however been my journal worryingly reflects my brain with a ton of lose pieces of paper poked in it, but hey, I guess I can’t have it all! It may look chaotic to others but this is my piece of mind, all my ideas are in one place ready for when I have time to develop them, with no fear of forgetting that groundbreaking idea I may have had while writing this blog post. The other place I use is the car. I live in a fairly remote area so I spend a lot of time there and I can allow my ideas to flow. With ‘Siri’ as my partner I can record my thoughts with voice command on my phone without touching it, win win. I then schedule time in my diary to expand on these projects. They may come to nothing but if I don’t try I’ll never know.
The other thing I do is make time to breathe or meditate. My children are early risers, always have been, and there no sign they’ll be stopping anytime soon. Unless I want to get up at 4am I’m never up before them. You know how you read those articles about ‘The 5 Things Successful People Do Every Day’ one of them is always “I get up at 5am so I can get a couple of hours uninterrupted work in before the rest of the family wakes up”, say WHHAATTT, your family sleeps until 7am?! What I do do however is give myself 5 mins at 6.25 before they come slamming into our bedroom the minute the clocks in their rooms say 6.30. I’m not complaining, they are coming in for morning kisses and cuddles and I am acutely aware that this does eventually stop so I’m enjoying the moment. In these 5 minutes I just breathe, I clear my mind and concentrate on my breath, I don’t think about anything. This has taken endless practice. It is not easy to think about nothing (unless you are my OH, then apparently this is normal!), especially when you have so much going on. I started with just 1 minute and worked up to 5 minutes and for me that is enough to refuel and start my day with a clear head.
The other thing I do is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) also known as Tapping. I do this in the shower and it helps focus my thoughts and eliminate doubts. The king of EFT is Brad Yates and I would recommend you google him. He has lots of YouTube videos that talk you through the process. Many entrepreneurs and business mentors use this tool and I have found it very useful……once I got past the whole tapping on your face thing!
So that’s it #1 Scheduling time to ‘think’.
#2 Five Minutes of Meditation/Breathing
#3 EFT
I hope this goes some way to help my fellow bouncy brainers and I’d love to hear how you go with these.
K
