Getting into the Vortex: Why Sometimes Not Doing Work Actually Works

As a business owner, I'm often running around in a lot of directions. A typical day might include:

 

*Invoices (I LOVE writing invoices)

* Accounts payable (beginning to love these more too! thanks vendors!)

* Social media run throughs (making the rounds)

* Continuing education (classes and courses in all kinds of things both coaching and marketing)

* Clients (hahahaha we need those to live)

* Sending out ships (as Angela Jia Kim calls them. This is all about new biz development.)

* Catching up on industry news

* Content creation (blogs, newsletters, books and the like)

* Admin

* PR and pitching activities

* Networking events

* Planes, trains & automobiles!

* Homecaring That is rather a lot, no? And today, for whatever reason (does a lady every really need a reason?) all I could do at 12 noon was crawl into my bed and rest my weary eyes and then read a little bit of my book of short stories and nap again.

 

The short stories all take place in Italy. The book is Light in the Piazza by Elizabeth Spencer and my mom gave it to me because she is keenly aware of my love affair with Italia. And reading the book brought me thisclose with people who were living their lives as ghosts- sort of floating through life as if life were happening to them. The characters were at effect, rather than at cause.

 

And it made me think of the things that have gone unexpressed in my life. Places where I have shut the door and let cobwebs grow. Adventures that remain in my mind and words and actions and antics that are still concept only.

 

At first I felt sad. And then I got mad. (This is good. It actually takes me up Abraham Hicks' emotional guidance scale) And then I realized, once again, that instead of its being a platitude without weight/heft/reality, the adage that I can do anything I put my mind to is incredibly accurate. And indicting.

 

I realized I was operating from a perspective that Putting Off the Work I Should Be Doing in lieu of other things like fully engaging in my meal, taking a nap, enjoying the sun on the roof, spending time with my little brother and an old friend, buying the tickets to go to Italy was taking me away from my goals/dreams when in fact it's quite the opposite. Lest you think I'm advocating the shirking of all responsibilities and commitments, let me be more clear.

 

I believe our best actions to achieve our dreams are inspired actions. And no, some days I am not at all inspired to do, for example, my administrative tasks.

 

My challenge to live presently and in the vortex of inspired action becomes threefold.

 

ONE: I recognize when all there is to do is sit and paint. Or meditate. Or read a delicious Vogue. Or eat bonbons. And relish every moment knowing that this time genuinely feeds my greatest aims and purposes as much as networking, emailing, etc.

TWO: I cultivate inspired action. (For me that's through reading others' work, connecting with my purpose regularly, and otherwise being around people who are positive, successful, ambitious, genuine. And chilling in nature.)

THREE: I seek a higher level of emotion around activities that once felt annoying/draining. (Back I go to the emotional guidance scale and the tools in my coaching toolkit to create a different approach to, for example, those admin tasks.)

 

That I get to embrace the seemingly contradictory patterns of workflow and ease in my days is one of the chief reasons that I do not work as an employee. If only the corporate world understood this concept better- imagine the creativity and wellness that would result!

 

And now, I'm off to buy chocolate, have some meetings. And I might skip that networking event tonight in lieu of sticking around the house to draw.

 

After all, I trust (wholeheartedly) that if I'm planning my work and working my plan, all the people, events, circumstances and resources I desire to further my goals will be made available.

 

There now, I think I just got into the Vortex.