Ep 154: Did I manage to stop striving this summer?

00:51 Welcome to Unfrazzle, a podcast for solo business owners with a big vision who are ready for a kinder more sustainable approach to productivity. I'm Louise Miller and each week i share bite-sized insights to help you step away from the hustle stop faffing and stay focused so you can make your brilliant ideas happen and make a bigger impact in the world Before we dive into today's episode, if you enjoy what I'm sharing here on Unfrazzle and you'd like to support the podcast. You can buy me a cuppa by going to BuyMeACoffee.com slash Louise Miller and making a one-off donation. I'll pop a link to that in the show notes Okay grab yourself a cuppa and let's get started

01:30 In the middle of July, I shared an episode of this podcast called Do We Need to Be With What Is? Think it was episode 146. I'll pop a link in the show notes if you want to have a listen but i was talking all about how it might feel if we stopped pushing even if just for a moment It was a challenge to myself as much as a suggestion for you because I'd noticed the pattern that so many of us experience. I was always looking into the next thing, refining things that already exist or starting work on something new and wondered what would happen if I challenged myself only do things that had to happen in business? So for me it looked like taking care of clients, sending weekly emails, publishing podcasts every week

02:10 Plus the occasional LinkedIn post if I felt like it. And, I was curious to see whether I could do it even just for a week? So today as we get back into the swing of things after the summer, I thought I would give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what actually happened for me after I'd shared that episode And whether or not I managed it. So the first potential obstacle to me just sort of sitting back and being with what is, came in the form of something that i had the opportunity to get involved in that I really didn't want to miss so Teresa Heath-Waring was running a messaging month and because I know how brilliant she is I really wanted to get involved! So I did spend some time diving into that and as part of that I decided to host around tables so that I could chat with my people about their challenges and see how they're feeling about things right now

02:55 But as well as that, in mid-July I was also inviting people to come along to my 12 months planning workshop. Now over the last few years –I think this is the third year i have run that workshop now– and in the last few years that workshop has sold out with relative ease but this year things felt different. I actually ended up selling 60% of the places available and whilst yes I could have pushed harder I chose not to. So, I remembered my intention to be with what is... To stop striving, stop pushing so hard and have a more gentle time of it over the summer and i just trusted that the people who needed the workshop had signed up

03:34 And that mental shift from stress into acceptance made a really massive difference. And I know lots of people are finding things tough right now, so the fact that I had a lovely group of people who trusted me enough to hand over some money and gather to plan their year with me really did fill me with gratitude rather than keeping me fixated on the places I hadn't sold. So once I decided not to keep pushing for more workshop signups And once I decided that i was going to just press pause on the messaging work until I'd had that round table conversation with people, that was a point at which I was able to lean back a little bit. So that last week in July was lovely! I had some client delivery to do which was great but I also took the opportunity to head out and buy some pottery supplies...I went and met up with a friend sat in her garden with a cup of tea and a biscuit one afternoon hadn't seen her in a while so that was lovely and I also took some time to do some pottery

04:29 You know, my intention at the start of all of this was to take the afternoon off as much as I possibly could over the summer. And I managed to do that during July quite a lot which was really lovely especially with it being so hot and I was struggling to function in the afternoons anyway! So the other thing that happened was a few collaboration opportunities came my way during that first part of the summer, one of which came with a very tight deadline to deliver a presentation. Obviously I made the choice to say yes to that and i did that because it felt in alignment with where i'm trying to go in my business right now but it meant i had to get my head into prepping for that during that first week of August

05:04 Which was also when I was taking part in a summit that iIwas really excited about and I wanted to be as present for that as possible. So, I did spend quite a lot of time that week recording personalized thank you messages for the people who'd engaged with my content during that week as well. Had some client sessions that week had my round table that week so it was feeling quite full and didn't really line up with my intention to stop striving and just be with what is but everything I did do... ...i did with intention! So, I'm not giving myself a hard time about that Now also with all of this going on I realised that i hadn't actually blocked out any time for a break. So, I decided to take the second week in August off completely to down tools and step away from my laptop and that was absolute heaven! So Teresa Heath-Waring she'd asked me to make some candles for her next in person event so I got the clay out and basically made one heck of a mess all week. I also took some photos of some finished pieces listed them in my Etsy store

05:58 Which I had been meaning to do for ages, so it felt really good just to pootle around and create at home for a week. And to be honest that week off probably did mark the end of my attempt to stop striving and just be... So i think At that point It had been a month since I released that podcast episode and when I came back to work after that break I realized that I needed to ramp things up again because I wanted to apply all of that messaging work that i'd been doing in July, to the launch that's been happening over the last week or two. So there were emails and sales pages to review and rewrite...I've been getting ready to deliver Quiet Action Big Impact and The 12 Month Planning Workshop. I've also decided to run my own summit in November and I want to chip away at that steadily over time. I'm the sort of person who prefers a marathon to a sprint so I have been working on that

06:46 And just to top it all off, I have also decided that I'm going to move everything over to a brand new platform. So I need to start transferring my website and emails and everything over... ...and I want to have that done by November as well! There is a lot for me to focus on now and I am actually feeling really good about it particularly because I let myself take things gently over the summer and had a really lovely nourishing week off. Did I manage to spend any significant amount of time at all where ALL I was doing were the essentials? Well, kind of. But also not really! So there were gentle moments, there were lots of afternoons off where I wasn't pushing and feeling the need to create anything and that felt really good. I definitely gave myself space, I gave myself grace during July. Choosing not to keep selling that planning workshop felt aligned with the not striving ethos that i wanted to play with but the messaging work meant that I was doing something over and above the basic essentials and I'm okay with that. The timing of that was out of my control, I chose to do it and it turned out to be incredibly valuable

07:46 So what's my conclusion from this experiment? Well, I think i've discovered that whilst it might sometimes be tricky to only do the bare minimum you know opportunities present themselves and things come up. It is possible to cultivate a greater awareness of the things that you're saying yes too To give yourself permission to take your foot off the gas For example, I chose not to work on my summit during July even though I knew that would give me more to do later. And it is possible to bring that lighter energy to things and for me having that intention in the back of mind made a huge difference to how I felt during the summer So I'm curious to know, how did this go for you? Did you give it a go as well? I know a few of you got in touch letting me know how much this resonated for you. Feel free to drop me an email or send me a message over on LinkedIn if you brought this sort of energy to your summer as well let me know how you got on and i realize this episode has been a little bit different to usual. I hope that you found this peek behind the scenes interesting and helpful and I look forward to seeing you again soon

08:43 Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend who needs a dose of calm productivity in their life and I'd love it if you could leave me a rating or review as that will help more people discover the podcast And if you're struggling with productivity right now, take my free assessment to find out what's really getting in the way of you getting things done. It takes less than three minutes to complete and I'll send you tailored resources and insights that will help based on your score You'll find that at louisemiller.uk slash quiz and there's a link for that in the show notes So thank you so much for being here and I look forward to seeing you next time