There’s always too much to do, and having a life and a business can seem impossible. As a client asked me, “Why is it so hard to do less?”
This is worth digging into, because doing too much actually means bad news for your business.
What’s your take-away from this video? What can you do to help shift this for yourself?
With love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
P.S. Do less by getting all spiritual: August 28.
Friday, August 28 is our next Spiritual Business Virtual Retreat. I’ve facilitated about 100 of these virtual spiritual retreats since 2005, and they have been profound for the hundreds of people who have taken them.
Even if you can’t take off the entire day, please join us. It’s profound taking a retreat perspective into meetings you can’t cancel. I’ll be spending time with my family, too, I won’t be completely isolated, and it adds real depth to the experience.
Because we don’t want to be spiritual just on retreat, but hold that in our heart in every day life.
10 Responses
Thanks Mark – this is a really excellent message – our most valuable resource is our own time! Acknowledging our limits – and inability to do it all – is very powerful. I’ve just come across Marcia Bjornerud’s book Timefulness and her concept of time denial, when we try and pretend that time is not an issue.
I’ve noticed that we live in a speedy society where listening and attention to another is compromised. I’ve noticed, when talking on the phone with many customer service reps that they tend to speak very quickly, which is hard for me to process and I have to interrupt and ask them to clarify. This is their work which they thoroughly know, and I am a novice. Still, they will spew out facts and numbers that I can’t follow. I will ask a simple question, expecting a one-sentence answer, and get an onslaught of information that covers a variety of topics. It’s quite frustrating. A product of the digital age? Finding it difficult to slow down and smell the roses, so to speak. Hence the need for meditation, Remembrance or retreat (spiritual, that is.)
Perhaps for a future video. On the flip side, I deal with procrastination which is not doing enough work to help my business. Let’s have some insight into that cure. Is it another version of the same thing?
I loved this video, and, as a direct result of it PLUS the insights from last week in the AMAZING “Heart of *Your* Business” course (which I can’t recommend enough as a step in forgiving and centering into the relationship with one’s business!) where you showed us the long but doable list of what all goes into a business (but not until our hearts were prepared by 6 weeks of caring, careful preparation)
as a direct result, of this
…
– I now have a date night scheduled every week,
– I now have my calls with my sister scheduled to be *regular*,
– I have been able to ask a friend to consider scheduling something *regularly* (even though he balked at the idea because his life feels so scheduled at his job, already, I told him I notice that the effort of setting up ‘random/spontaneous’ dates is also inhibiting us in its own sad way, and (thanks to your encouragement,) I was able to be neutral & loving, and clearly propose that he cancel as often as he likes, but pick a regular slot, please, in a gentle way that he could hear!)
– And I’ve been celebrating my other commitments to family and self-care.
…
Seeing them as recurring and healthy works better for me than delaying social ‘dessert’ until ‘after you eat your dinner’ of doing work *by the task* and then playing catch-up in dramatic waves.
…
Thanks, Mark, for healing my business & more
with your near-comical, totally empathetic, SPOT ON wisdom!
…
Question:
Does it help to schedule things into “chunks of time” *regardless* of the tasks?
I’ve been prioritizing things by *task* and getting things done in order,
but never seem to notice how much TIME LAPSES before I’m done!
Any tips/languaging/metaphors on how to think of tasks that ‘should’ only take 20 minutes, always taking longer, and how to know when to stop anyways and switch gears… vs. be persistent? Schedule in a Remembrance?
Hi Mark,
Thank you for this beautiful and timely message. I particularly appreciate starting with what we’ve actually been able to do rather than what, in our idealized imagination, what we might be able to do if only we had . . . more time.
And also the invitation to allow our grief to arise when we truly face our limitations. That’s the only way I’ve found to move forward to what is actually possible, which can, paradoxically enough, exceed anything we might have imagined.
Peace,
Thomas
PS. I was in Heart of Money in 2013 and am still learning and benefiting from the lessons and insights of that life-changing course.
Liked the idea, know your capacity range, and prioritize your stuff, its no use getting stressed out. Little things in life make a big difference, we all need to reiterate some basic lessons.
It all comes back to believing thoughts and through meditation expanding our capacity for witness awareness (seeing our thoughts, emotions, body’s reaction rather than act through them). During the time of year that the to-do-list is never ending I get caught often in thinking it all needs done now or if I stay longer in the day, more will get done sacrificing needed downtime and rest. May even feel energized enough to push through in the moment but long term consequences always surface. The more I push on through to attend to the list the greater the long term effect of sluggishness and inefficiency in the days ahead with less and less tasks getting done in a timely fashion and having a harder time being present, attentive, pleasant with customers.
The moment that I am able to pause and see what I am doing and question the thoughts about how everything needs done now then I am able to sort through the tasks and make better decisions in time management and in the volume of work that truly needs finished now versus what can wait for another day and make better decisions regarding a healthier lifestyle that includes rest, time away from the job and doing, and connecting with loved ones, healthy eating, exercising and meditation, greater connectedness with spiritual values and qualities; seeing what else matters in life.
Thoughts can be compelling. Taking a moment to pause and question thoughts in a non-judging, compassionate way is a hugely important step.
I SO DEEPLY needed to hear this… I have been ‘trying’ and efforting to get my website and business launched on a relatively intense time frame, as I feel the pressure to begin bringing in income due to recently losing my ‘job.’ And yet… each time I sit down to work, after a few hours, I begin to feel overwhelmed, emotional/teary, frustrated and defeated… because it all still feels so far away and there’s always ‘more to do.’
I also recognize that I am contracting around it all and not allowing the openness and space for inspiration, creativity, flow… and that simply perpetuates the feeling of frustration… as I am trying so hard to create, without impassioned direction from the Divine. In fact, my effort feels a lot like my ego/mind doing because I am NOT trusting the abundance and provision and direction of the Divine.
It’s truly out of my hands…. and the more I effort, the less likely my business with thrive, as it’s my heart and soul that is meant to be bringing this offering into the world… not my ego, mind and personal effort.
Thank you Mark, for this reminder… it was beyond timely! And I look forward to slowing down even more and participating in the Spiritual Business Retreat for the first time.
Blessings to you for your service and for being a vessel of Divine guidance.
Kenna- thank you for this. It’s so affirming to read that you resonated with it. May you find grace and ease moving forward, with a lot more spaciousness. Less done, but more effectively and beautifully.
This is so accurate, I have really burned myself out this year and now trying to recoup and get myself back into the swing of things. But finding it hard to get the motivation back. I guess many are in a similar position right now. At least my spiritual self is thriving.
I hear you about motivation- I find that it often needs to subside, and then arise in a different form. May you find your way easily.