Are you caught in the “busy-ness” trap?

Being busy is like a badge of honor in our modern Western society.

We think that busy = successful, and that if we just work that much harder we will become that much more successful, but the reality is that when we leave ourselves no space, we get stuck.

It’s like canning. When you’re canning, you have to leave head room in the jar or else the pressure will become too much and the jar will explode. The same applies to our minds: we need headspace because that is where creative ideas can flow and inspiration comes alive.

I designed my life and my business around spaciousness, until last October when we had a water leak in our kitchen. I was without a kitchen, dining room or family room for over four months with a toddler… and my mother-in-law had just moved in since she was in-between homes. Between shuttling my child back and forth to daycare and dealing with contractors, I lost about 7 hours of work each week. I felt compressed.

The first thing I did was pare down. Any spinning plates I could put down, I did so I could get my space back. My priority was giving my clients a great client experience and most everything else was put to the side. It worked but only because I had enough headspace to have my business sustain with 7 less hours a week. And interestingly, when everything was said and done and I finally got my kitchen back, I enrolled 3 new ideal clients within two weeks. It’s like something in me opened and called out to the world, “Tara’s open for new business!”

Despite what our culture likes to tell us about being busy, we need space to make room for new ideas, inspiration, clients and opportunities. Not only that, but if we aren’t intentional about creating space for ourselves, it will come anyway in some form, like getting sick, losing clients, or something else unsavory.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to escape the busyness trap and live in the Seattle area, consider attending a Busyness Trap workshop, hosted by my client, Jillian Avey. Or contact her if you want to know when this workshop will be available in webinar format

What needs to shift in your business to insure you have headroom? I’d love to hear!

With appreciation,