Flexibility and Control

Welcome to Bliss for Business! If you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, or career-driven individual, tune in on Wednesdays to join Dani on an adventure to learn how to bring your work life in harmony with the thirteen Bliss Habits.

I don’t know that any of the Bliss Habits to date are more important to blissful business – or business in general – than flexibility.

Which means it’s also the hardest to come by.

Because the drive that makes us good business owners, strong career-minded individuals, willing to see through the ideas to the processes through the failures and to the successes? We tend to like a bit of control over our world.

(Yeah, I’m looking at you.)

But that desire to control, to guide each and every landing, to know where each and every step will lead? That’s pretty much a recipe for chaos.

It’s okay to plan. It’s okay to have goals, and dreams, and revenue markers, and expectations. That’s all part of what differentiates a business or career from a hobby, after all.

In the ten-plus years I’ve been doing this entrepreneurial dance, if I’ve learned nothing else, I’ve learned these two things:

1. You can’t do it all yourself. Nor should you. (But control issues will keep you from delegating and hiring out long past when you should).
2. It will never, ever go the way you think it will. (And that’s NOT a bad thing.)

And it’s that second one that’s the kicker.

You can say that market conditions change, and that’d be true of almost any industry. You can say that projections were high or low, that there are more (or fewer) products available; that there’s new competition or old competition has dropped out of the game; that you landed (or lost) that one big contract that no one ever expected.

These things are mostly true, for most businesses, at one time or another…but that’s not where the real fluctuations happen.

The real differences come into play when what you want changes. Because it will. It always will. Your priorities will shift. What you want from your life, from your job, from this week – it will change.

And your plans need to change with it.

This is the ultimate challenge of your flexibility in business. Do you stubbornly ride the waves of what you’ve been building, because you’re attached to the work you’ve done, the investments you’ve made in this path? Or are you willing to be flexible? Consider how your desires, your priorities, your needs are shifting, and make adjustments to compensate?

This is not to say you should be changing up your business strategy every day, mind you – you’d be spinning in circles if you did that. But when that pressure rolls in, that sinking feeling of unhappiness and dis-ease, it’s a good time to check in with yourself.

Points to ponder:

1. What’s most important to me? What are my highest priorities right now? What are my dreams and ideals?
2. How are my immediate tasks and future plans helping me work within these priorities to achieve these dreams? Can I draw straight lines from task to dream, and see how one is helping the other?
3. How can I adjust my plans to better incorporate my priorities and achieve these dreams?
4. Where am I hitting resistance? How can I be more flexible in pursuit of my goals?

Knowing that your next steps are really, truly in line with where you want to head can make it a little bit easier to ease up on the control factor, and shimmy into the realm of flexibility. (The rest is just time and practice.)

Are your current plans, in business and in life, aligned with your goals, or are they shooting you towards something a past you was wishing for? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Hi! I’m Dani. I’m a writer, teacher, business coach, and signal-booster, and I’m on a mission to help you make your business more awesome, more successful, and more you. (With tea. Tea is always good.)

Join me for resources, wicked wisdom, and other good things at daninelson.com!