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Evolutionary Business Design

Why EOFY is like Christmas in July for Business Owners

Endings and beginnings: Like EOFY, they’re inevitable; like breathing… out with the old, in with the new.

I love a good rummage around in my computer. As a Creator, I do a lot of writing and thinking and starting but not everything gets finished.

Not everything gets published – but here’s something that did. It went out as a newsletter late last year and, on reflection, I thought it was relevant to the End Of the Financial Year (EOFY) just as much as Christmas.

You might be focussed on the financial clean up but there is so much more to endings and new beginnings than getting buried in numbers. If you can think differently, you can get different results.

Here’s my Christmas in July gift to you… and a little BONUS at the end.

The end of things…

Yes I know it’s only November, but there’s something about “now” that has a certain feel to it.

​I love this time of year – the time to start finishing off the year; tidying up and the tying off things… like a big red bow tied around a hand-made gift that is complete and ready to bestow at Christmas.

​I’m a creator – I like to make a mess when I’m creating. My desk resembles Einstein’s.

​Puttering around my desk, cleaning up, gives me time to think. I find things I thought I’d lost in the teetering stacks of notes and sketches and outpouring of ideas. I find snatches of wise words from conversations, resource materials, pictures and doodles and diagrams, the beginnings of things for later use – I’m so amazed at what comes out of my brain and makes it to a page. Thank goodness it does come out – it gets cluttered in there!

​I like to clean up afterwards to make room for more intriguing thoughts.

And as I clear my desk after a project is finished, sweeping away the detritus left from a million creative ideas, I clear my mind by reviewing…

  • what worked and what didn’t,
  • what I learnt,
  • who I connected with,
  • what I’ll stop doing,
  • what I’ll continue to do
  • what I’ll do differently next time.

​Some of my plans for this year came to fruition; some went completely sideways, some smacked me between the eyes – amazing, surprising, startling things that I could never have planned for, like my new health coach who appeared at just the right time.

​I love the potency of those spontaneous things, and while I’m pretty big on planning, I also like to leave lots of “wiggle” room for things to evolve. Some of them have been way better that I could have imagined or planned for myself.

The realisation I came to quite a while ago is that while we behave like we can control everything; we schedule and diarise and pack and squeeze as much as we can into our too busy lives, we’re actually not in control nearly as much as we think we are.

​There are other forces at work here and if you just stop for a minute, take a step back and loosen your grip you’ll find all sorts of synchronistic, apparently spontaneous things will be allowed to happen.

​You’ll bump into that person you’ve been thinking of, the clients you’ve always wanted will contact you, the projects you really want to work on – they will come to you.

​That’s pretty much been my year – everything I tried to force got choked, everything I allowed to flow happened almost effortlessly.

​Right now I’m in flow… getting ready for relaxing summer holidays, time with family, lazing under a tree with a good book, walking, swimming, playing with my grandson, clearing my head and connecting with people I love.

​Not long now. Just a few more loose ends…

The beginning of things…

There’s a space between finishing one thing and starting another.

​I call it creative procrastination; it’s the thing you do in the space between productive tasks. You tidy your desk, you make another cuppa, you get a snack, make a few calls, clear your emails, file your nails, make holiday plans…

But there’s more going on than you realise. You’re “Getting Ready”.

Your brain is switching gears. While you’re fluffing about in the in-between space, your brain is planning and working things out. What you need, who you need, how to tackle the task. It’s an almost meditative state, like hand watering the garden on a warm summer’s evening.

Until eventually you kick yourself into gear; “C’mon, get on with it”.

And you make a start.

Trust that process. Don’t use it as an excuse!

Now it’s up to you… run with it, play with it, be with it – enjoy it!

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