Often when I talk to business owners there is a desire to do something that goes beyond the realms of the business. Sometimes it is related to what they currently do, many other times it seems that there is no connection at all. These ideas and desires for a future that currently seems to be of or in another wold, a parallel universe of ‘what-ifs’ are regularly laughed off by the individual as ‘silly’ or ‘just a dream’.
Who said that as we become entrepreneurs or business owners we had to give up all the other fun stuff in our heads? Why can’t I be a ski instructor too?
Either/or is neat and simple. It allows sense to be made of the school time table- science or art?, It allows sensible adult decisions to be made- joiner or racing driver? It fuels the 9-5 economy and ensures a ready made market of car-loan takers, holiday makers and TV entertainment package buyers are always there, looking for a little reconnection to their long let go of dream. How sad.
Let’s replace either and or with and. I want to run a business and live permanently in the south of France or I want to be a gardener and do a degree in Literature, or I want to be a joiner and race cars at the weekend.
The problem is that as soon as we verbalise things with ‘and’ our old, slightly dodgy, risk mitigation system that is our own thinking kicks in and tells us that we ‘can’t because’. We can listen to it or we can choose to live our life the way we really want to live it and a little underused tool called creativity will help us.
Imagine you are in that perfect life as a joiner that races cars or a recruitment consultant who is also a skiing instructor in winter. Look around you- what do you see? what do you hear? What are the conversations that you are having and with whom? What does it feel like? What are you looking forward to? Who and what surrounds you? Paint a rich picture using all of your senses continuing to give free rein to your creativity and imagination. If sensibility suggests that something isn’t possible or realistic, cast it to one side and continue. It doesn’t have to be realistic or possible at this point. Most worthwhile, innovative or adventurous things begin life labeled as mad ideas. Rarely do sensible well thought out and carefully- planned- from -the- beginning ideas create innovation or adventure.
To bring dream into reality all you have to do, from your wonderful future, is to tell me how you got there? As if giving me driving directions, tell me the big steps that you had to take in order to get to that future. Don’t worry about the detail, just the really big stuff. Right, got that? now return to the present moment and look at those big steps and ask yourself if doing those things would get you to that future or are there things missing? Continue to think backwards and forwards, weaving your dream into reality.
What’s up? Oh one of those things seems impossible? Place that in the future and ask if it were true what would it look like, feel like, sound like? Paint a rich picture and…you know the rest.
Happy weaving!
Love this Jane