It’s been a week full of new clients and bold moves. And consideration of a potentially life changing decision with only 4 days’ exploring and thinking time. And then falling over badly enough to get a scabby elbow, and drop my new laptop.
The last ten days have been full on. Mostly in a good way, with the obvious exception being the body blow from the pavement, and holes in my lovely new laptop case.
So when Monday morning dawned and I wasn’t feeling as enthusiastic as normal, I thought I’d take it a bit easy. Of course, not easy enough to stay in bed, as I have a business to build and a task list with plenty of room for ticks. But I did choose to do some of the slightly less demanding tasks as I’m in a little bit of an ebb.
I wrote a while ago about being in flow , which is essentially those times when everything is going right. The trick is to exploit every ounce of opportunity, be a bit cocky and capitalise on the good vibes that are in the air. The temptation can be to feel smug after the first thing goes my way, and have a nice sit down and a cup of tea. Chamomile, obviously. But it’s a shame to stop when things are going so well. I carry on bounding around as the successes tend to build up quickly.
We can’t be in flow all the time, and sometimes we’re at the other end of life’s oscillations. Like today, when I’m in ebb rather than flow. Now’s the time to have a nice sit down and a cup of tea, metaphorically and literally.
Today was a metaphorical, rather than a literal, sit down. I biked over to my old friend J’s office for a cuddle with Cara the Collie, some banter, and a bit of technological support. My initial bullishness on installing freeware onto my new laptop had waned, and it was time to ask for help.
An officeful of male techies is an amusing place. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, they cannot bear to exist nearby a IT problem. They descend on my cute little white computer with glee. There’s the opportunity to accuse me of ‘user error’, and the usual anti-Microsoft diatribe. I spend a very enjoyable day fiddling around in their office, exchanging helpfulness and sorting myself out.
Using ‘ebb’ times to regroup, do routine and less demanding tasks (and have some fun) is a very effective use of time. It helps us secure a firm footing from where to take off into the flow when it hits next time. And it’s coming, so it’s best to be ready.
