[DAY 64 OF THE DEEP END PROJECT]
I am back from my Vacation. It’s funny how much more gratitude I have for my home, my bed and my bathroom after I’ve been away for a few days.
I almost want to kiss my kitchen counters, doors and windows to express my love. This was not the case just a few weeks ago.
I had officially reached a “pandemic induced hatred” for everything in my house. All I needed was a change in my surroundings and sharing a bathroom with the 3 men in the family. Yeah, that’ll make anyone appreciate even a little bit of space.
That kinda brings me to my final (and the biggest) lesson I’ve learned as an Entrepreneur.
Lesson Number 7 – We are cyclical beings, thus our business also needs to be cyclical.
Nature is our biggest teacher. All you need is a ten minute walk in a park to learn the most important lesson of our life, hidden in plain sight.
Everything is cyclical.
Seasons come and go.
Trees bloom in spring and summer, shed in fall and hibernate in winters, to get ready to bloom once again.
Birds (and many animals) migrate in the winter. Some hibernate.
Moon waxes and wanes every 28 days.
And humans? We are cyclical too.
Not only do we have a circadian rhythm that are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle, we also have a cyclical nature just like the moon cycle or the seasons.
If you are a woman, you have a monthly cycle (irrespective whether you bleed currently or not
We are a part of nature. When we accept and reclaim our cyclical nature, we thrive.
The factory culture of working 9 to 5, Monday to Friday works great for our Capitalistic society, but not so great for your wellness.
As business owners, we have quit our jobs to start our freedom business but we tied ourselves to the same redundant nature of a corporate job.
We have forgotten that just like nature has spring, summer, fall and winter – – we too have our inner spring, summer, fall and winter.
When we don’t accept our cyclical nature, we struggle. We burn out. Our businesses become an uphill hike with a 20 lb backpack.
If you’ve ever forced yourself to create content, do training your clients or your motivation has refused to show up no matter how many personal development books you’ve read, you know how being detached with your cyclical nature feels.
On the other hand, if you’ve ever had moments when things have just seemed magical – – you’ve said all the right things on a sales call,a blog post just rolled out of your mind, to your fingertips and on to the google doc or you are just bursting with creative ideas. This happens when you are in flow, in complete alignment with your true cyclical nature.
To come back into flow, you must align your business (and all activities) with your cyclical nature.
The only way you can do that is to first know your nature.
I have done this in my business in 3 Steps (and yes these are cyclical, which means I always keep doing them again and again)
STEP 1
Know (and practice) your Human Design
I love HD because so far nothing has been more accurate in describing who I am. But knowing your HD is different from using your Human Design in your daily life and business.
This is an experiment and you’ll have to keep doing it. The good thing is that after you are able to let go of your resistance, practicing your Human Design will come naturally to you. Why? Because this is who you were from the very beginning. It will feel easy. But you need to experiment with this. Use your Human Design’s strategy in every thing in your life.
As a Manifestor my strategy is to inform. The more I do this, the better I become at it. The more I do this, the less resistance I feel towards informing.
STEP 2
Chart your Menstrual or Lunar Cycle
This has been a game changer in my life. I used to hate my period. Even my family knew not to touch me with a 10 ft pole when I was PMSng.
Ever since I started charting my menstrual cycle and aligned my life & business with it, I was really able to see the gift in every phase of my cycle.
If you are curious about this, I highly recommend reading the book, Code Red: Know Your Flow, Unlock Your Super Powers and Create a Bloody Amazing Life. Period by Lisa Lister.
If you do not get your period or are menopausal, you can still chart your energy based on the Moon Cycle.
Moon affects our mood, our energy levels and our productivity. If you don’t believe in this, I get it. But if you do or are curious about this, start tracking your energy levels everyday for a period of 2-3 months.
I can guarantee you’ll start to see patterns emerging. For the last year or so, I used to feel very energetic on New Moon and downright depressed on Full Moon. This is changing now for me, but till about 3 months ago, all my marketing and sales activities were scheduled for New Moon and my vacation/rest days for Full Moon.
At the end of the day, whether you chart your Menstrual cycle or the Moon Cycle or both like I do, my suggestion would be to do it for at least 3 months (to be able to see patterns emerging) and then revolve your entire business around it.
STEP 3
Unrestrict your Creative Flow
As business owners, we are all Creatives. And Creativity doesn’t follow a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 schedule.
It comes and goes when it pleases.
If you’ve ever woken up with an amazing idea of a course at 4 am in the morning, you know what I mean.
Creativity is very cheeky. It will blast our consciousness at the most inconvenient times.
During sex.
When you are in deep sleep.
During a boring conversation with your Mother in Law that you can’t escape.
At your son’s football practice.
The thing is when you try to restrict your creativity by telling it “Mondays 10 am to 3 pm are my content creation days and that’s when I will write my weekly content”, Creativity escapes.
It doesn’t like being restricted. It hates being tied to a place or time or a specific way.
But when you allow yourself to welcome Creativity at any time, it gushes in and floods your existence.
I am not saying that you shouldn’t have a schedule or a calendar or follow time blocking, but don’t restrict yourself too much to it that you block the flow of creative ideas.
And, always keep a pen and paper or your notes app handy (except during sex, coz that’ll be weird)
To recap Lesson Number 7, if we accept and reclaim our cyclical nature and align our business with it, we thrive and flourish.
I’d love for you to share with me – what has been your biggest Business Lesson?