The BOLD (Firm Foundation)
Entrepreneurs are told to work both in and on their businesses.
When we work in our business, we are doing the tasks and accomplishing the projects that generate our income and create the output that we are in business to create.
When we work on our business, we are accomplishing the things that make sure we stay in business—legal considerations, financial framework, advertising, employee care.
I would argue that we also need to work at our business—working to build our reputation and establish our expertise and make our brand promises in the world.
This same principle applies in our lives as well. We can work in our life to support those we love, to do good work, to contribute to our community. We must also work at our lives, building relationships and demonstrating our integrity.
How do we work on our lives? I think that every life requires a foundation built from four pillars. If we don’t adequately nurture each of those pillars, we will not be structurally sound enough to continue to make contributions. We must see to our energy, function, focus and heart. And it doesn’t happen in that order. Imagine a building with 4 corner pillars. If one is bigger, the others struggle to keep the roof on straight. They are all equally important, but they do not all have the same requirements of time, energy and attention at the same time.
When these pillars are tended and balanced, you have the foundation necessary for your boldest life.
The Whisper (Living the Livable 4)
We attain livable success when we are thriving, body, soul and bank account, inside our lifestyle. In order to thrive, we need the livable 4, the pillars that shore up the foundation on which our success and our life are built. We must nurture and attend to our focus, our function, our energy and our heart. How are you tending to the foundation of your boldest life? Let’s explore the care and feeding of each of these important elements.
Energy
Without a reserve of energy, we can’t access the power we will need to be creative, active, useful and resilient. What feeds our energy? Our energy is fed by the practices that replenish our bodies and our minds.
Food. What we eat, when we eat it, and sometimes even how we eat can impact our energy. The more you know about your metabolism and your nutrition needs the better. How are you fueling your body?
- Movement. Sometimes it feels counter-intuitive to exercise to grow energy. After a vigorous workout, we sometimes feel exhausted. However, movement moves our system, wakes up our minds, and builds stamina, strength, and resilience. How are you incorporating movement into your life?
- Sleep. We need more than we are getting. It is important to make a commitment to proper sleep and to seek out the practices that will help us get it. How are you encouraging good and adequate sleep in your life?
- Rest. I put this here as separate from sleep. We need periods of rest to punctuate our work. This is what Stephen Covey called sharpening the saw. We need variety and too much of any one activity saps our energy, even activities that we enjoy. What counts as rest for you and how are you making sure it shows up in your life?
- Routines. We save energy when we don’t have to invent everything all the time. Good routines can allow us to save energy to spend on new things. Are your routines saving energy for you?
- Variety. This has been difficult during lockdown. Our brains crave variety. We need routine to save energy. Then we need variety to stimulate us. How are you stimulating your brain with just the right amount of novelty?
What are some simple steps you could take to create, preserve or activate energy in your life?
Function
There are basic tasks we need to do to preserve function. Imagine a kitchen. First, function is established in the way the kitchen is laid out. If the stove is in the bedroom and we have to keep taking our supplies back and forth, we waste a lot of energy—and probably eat take-out a lot more than we should. Then imagine that the kitchen is well planned but piled with junk and dirty dishes. The pantry items are all on the counter. There is no way to find enough space to cook and even if you did, your tools wouldn’t be clean and ready to go. This is function.
- Systems and Routines. Routines help us save energy. They also preserve our function. Do your systems help you to seamlessly deal with everyday chores and handle typical inputs?
- Maintenance. Do you have systems in place that remind you to replenish your stocks, maintain your machines, and refresh your systems? It is a lot easier to replace the air filters than to replace the heating and air conditioning system. What requires more maintenance than you have been providing?
- De-cluttering. Sometimes the excess piles up and impedes your access to what you really need. Is your path clear to the things that you need, particularly on a daily basis?
What are some simple steps you could take to create, preserve or activate energy in your life?
Focus
What we focus on expands. Focus is critical for achievement. Our ability to focus is a skill and, like any skill, it can be practiced and honed.
- Meditation. Mindfulness practices allow us to understand how our wandering monkey mind pulls us from our focus. When we understand it and then practice bringing ourselves back to focus, we are growing the skill to re-focus. This skill is necessary as we apply ourselves to a task only to have the phone ring, a notification pop up, a cat’s meow, or any one of a million other distractions show up. We have to be able to re-focus to maintain focus. Do you have an introspection practice?
- Knowing our Why. When we understand what is important to us, we have a tool for deciding where to place our focus. Do you know how your mission, vision, and values are connected to your goals and your work?
- Planning. We support our focus when we write out our goals and establish our daily priorities to meet those goals. Finding the sweet spot between planning, executing, and recording allows us to know what we need to do, to do it, and then to capture the lessons we learned. Do you have a planning process that is lean enough to be efficient and robust enough to be effective?
What could you add to your day to improve your focus on the things that matter to you?
Heart
We can become so efficient and effective that we forget we have to live in the life we create. Your heart must be consulted, nurtured and honored or your life will be hollow.
- Spiritual Practice. Connection to the bigger picture, to higher power, to the place where your soul lives feeds your heart’s biggest yearning. This is, obviously, different for different people. Do you, if you feel you need it, have a spiritual practice?
- Relationship. We are social creatures. Many of my introvert friends are telling me that they have learned a great deal about the role social connection really plays in their life as they have lived in lockdown. We all need social connection, but we may not all need it the same way. How are you nurturing your connection to other people?
- Creativity. Many of us have been taught to think that we aren’t creative. We are all creative. We just use different tools to solve different challenges that require creativity. It doesn’t matter if your medium is paints, microphones, toddlers, or board meetings. How are you leaning into your creativity?
- Beauty. We need beauty. We all define beauty differently. For some, it is a canopy of leaves overhead. For others, it is the riff of a killer guitar solo. Are you finding yourself in a place of beauty on a regular basis?
How will you nurture your heart today and, in the week to come?
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