It can be a chaotic and challenging undertaking to be self employed or running a small business in these unprecedented times of climate change, peak oil and global economic crisis. What does it mean to “surf” the recession? How do we perform this complex balancing act?
Surfing any waves of change and transformation involves:
• Choosing our surf-board and learning our surfing skills – being prepared as best we can.
• Paddling and resting in the shallows, riding the waves, observing currents, ebbs and flows – being courageous in handling circumstances as they arise in the moment. Being open to change.
• Getting back on the board when we fall off – accepting and learning from our mistakes.
To be truthful, I don’t think anyone can be sure of the perfect way to surf the recession that guarantees sustainability. I offer you my ideas for today based on information and experience that I’ve accumulated so far. I’ve stated them in terms that my astrologist friend calls “suitably broad and vague,” leaving you free to interpret and adapt them to your own unique circumstances.
I imagine you will have your own thoughts to add to these, so please do comment and let’s share what we know.
1. Remind yourself of your business purpose and mission statement. What’s your core business? Focus on this. If your gut feeling is that your business purpose needs reorienting in the light of recent changes, act now.
2. Educate and inform staff on your business purpose/mission statement and how to hone in on it.
3. Identify firefighting activities (‘urgent but not important’ tasks or distracting activity) and seek to eliminate them through identifying their cause.
4. Learn some conflict resolution skills as personal stress levels are likely to increase. These will help you in your relationships with employees, suppliers and clients. Remember “Fair Trade and Fair Treatment.”
5. Make time for relaxation, spiritual practice, your family and friends in your working week. You still need to nurture your health and wellbeing. This is more, not less, important when handling additional challenges.
6. Pay attention to education and training for your place in a life sustaining society. Formal qualifications and accreditation are likely to be less important in a post peak-oil, post industrial growth society than sustainability and self-sufficiency skills.
7. Devise a power-cut plan. How will your business keep running during a break from energy supplies? Make a contingency plan and test it out.
8. Keep it light when you can – add some fun, lightness and love to each day by noticing the ridiculous, the charming, the tender, the beautiful and the humorous in everyday situations.
9. Remember that cutting your costs usually cuts carbon too, so make sure the two go hand in hand.
10. Keep reminders in your work space of your connection to nature and how your business benefits your environment – plants, natural light, images, fresh water and herbal teas. Spend some time in your garden, the park, or the great outdoors every day.
11. Review the planet part of your business plan (energy, transport, stationery, packaging, food etc used in your business) for opportunities to collaborate with others, work remotely, piggyback tasks and eliminate waste.
12. Investigate local suppliers of everyday consumables, use them in preference to others and keep their details handy.
13. Budget at least 6 months ahead and keep on top of your cash flow.
14. If you’re not already banking with an ethical bank, make this a priority now.
15. Review insurance and pension arrangements to make sure they are with sustainable, ethical companies.
16. Increase your supply of ready cash for everyday purchases (petty cash) and receiving cash payment from clients (float) as power cuts and financial shocks are likely to affect the operation of everyday banking, electronic financial transactions and cash machines .
17. Stay in frequent contact with your suppliers and customers and contract for payment in advance with any whose financial position looks tenuous, if this is not already written into your terms and conditions.
18. Maintain margins wherever possible. Add value, durability, flexibility and ease of use rather than reduce prices.
Having worked from home for the last 21 years, I’ve experimented with several modes and environments for working in. Here’s a guest article from Dawn Kubicek, who is an advocate of the benefits of working from an office or studio in your garden:
Working from home is something we are hearing more about at the moment. More and more people are changing their lives around to do it, due to a number of reasons. I’ve idetnfied 10 ways you will benefit from working from home in a garden office or studio:
1. Working in a secluded space away from the hustle and bustle of your home will give you the chance to concentrate and get the most out of your working day. Meeting your targets and deadlines is just as important whether you are in a shared office or in your garden studio.
2. Environmental psychology is known as the interplay between ourselves and our surroundings. It basically acknowledges the importance of our wellbeing and that we become more relaxed and can work better when we are in an outside environment. Natural settings help us relax and concentrate better letting us leave our working day feeling regenerated and ready for social or family activities.
3. Eating green is an important part of everyday life. Working at home will give you the chance to eat homemade lunches with fresh ingredients, or even take advantage of last night’s dinner It will also reduce waste from drinks and snack cartons throughout a working day.
4. A natural environment can reduce stress. Even taking breaks outside can help. This is shown via the Attention Restoration Theory where spending time in places where the clouds are moving in the sky and leaves are rustling in the breeze helps you relax and in this case produce higher levels and amounts of work. So if you are self employed or wanting to start your own business, a garden office will help you achieve the results you want.
5. Flexible hours can come in handy when it comes to childcare and school runs. You would have the chance of taking turns with your neighbour to pick the children up from school.
6. Your garden office laptop is more likely to be quicker and more efficient than those in a large organisation. Why? Because they have a lot of people to manage and have to put restrictions on services. Not to mention that fact that laptops use a fraction of the amount of energy compared to the desktop computer and even have the ability to heat up your whole energy efficient garden office!
7. Your morning drive to work in rush hour can be stressful and is not a good start to a working day. It is obviously cheaper and more environmentally friendly to walk down the garden to your office in the fresh air and relaxed atmosphere.
8. Lunch and petrol costs can mount up throughout the month. So, working from home is a simple way to cut costs.
9. Mobile communication is the cheapest and the best option at the moment for home workers. Some people are dumping the landline altogether and only using mobile phones as these days great deals on unlimited calls are available. Not to forget they are useful when on the road. So, there’s no need to install an extra phone line for your garden office.
10. Motivation and work levels will increase working from your garden rather than from inside your home.. Taking away the ever-present sense of ‘work’ can result in a calmer, generally more relaxed environment which lowers stress levels, benefitting your health and wellbeing.
(c) Dawn Kubicek. www.decoratedshed.com. Decorated Shed garden office buildings have the ability to change your life drastically and give you the chance to build up a more prosperous business where you will be on top of all your tasks and generally be in a better, more productive state of mind where work becomes a pleasure once again.
On the “Coaching” and “About me” pages of this website, I state that I coach from a psychospiritual perspective.
Every so often a prospective coaching client or fellow coach asks me to explain further. Some coaches, particularly business coaches, it would seem, are not familiar with this approach and many clients are unaware of the differences and potential benefits over conventional coaching.
It is operating from a perspective of being connected to the great unmanifest, of being vessels, of seeing what wants to come into being through us (the coach and the client). The client does not need to be aware that the coach is taking this approach, or even to have any spiritual beliefs. I’ll endeavour to describe the four main attributes that make coaching from a psychospiritual perspective special for the coach and the coaching client: Presence, Ego, Intuition, Intention.
For me as the coach: This is a different, more relaxed way of being with someone. It is about holding the space but from a heart connection rather than merely as part of a performance or business transaction. It is about nurturing (and sometimes taking steps to manage) the energy in this alliance and riding the tide of any strong emotions that emerge.
For the coachee: They feel “held” in a space of acceptance, respect and trust and allowed to be exactly who they are. Ideally, it is open and authentic for them. It feels safe to own up to blocks, assumptions and limiting beliefs that are unearthed during the course of the conversation.
Coach: The focus is on minimising the unconscious influence of the ego, keeping mine out of the coaching alliance except when operating consciously from it. In order to achieve this, I actively cultivate awareness and understanding of ego states, their manifestation and influence. I remain open to my higher self for guidance.
Coachee: They are encouraged to cultivate an awareness of ego states and manifestations and how to deal with them. They learn more about how to function from one’s heart and soul. They are also supported in cultivating the four divine states – loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity if and when they are open to this.
Coach: Daily practices (yoga and meditation in my case) help me to cultivate intuition so that I can tap into it naturally and with ease during a coaching conversation. This benefits the client because questions appropriate to the moment then arise naturally and with ease. Similarly, it is easier to recognise when to remain silent.
Coachee: They are encouraged to recognise (if they don’t already) the value of intuition and how it operates. Awareness of it is cultivated: e.g. “What is your intuition telling you in this situation?”. There is also a heightened appreciation of the benefits of intuition in terms of creativity, thinking outside the box and transforming limiting beliefs.
“Your imagination is your preview to life’s coming attractions”. Albert Einstein.
Visioning and setting intentions takes us a step or two beyond goal setting and I’ve found that it greatly enhances performance and fulfilment. Why is this? I believe it’s because this approach engages us to a much greater degree emotionally and spiritually and, at the same time, allows us the space to let go of outcomes. This might at first sound like a contradiction. In practice, though, being emotionally and spiritually involved leads to inspired decision making that’s more likely to be flexible and creative enough to keep us on track with our vision. In contrast, being attached to particular outcomes, rather than being commited to an intention, can lead to: entrenchment; frustration and guilt; feelings of unworthiness and unwillingness to engage in the learning that emerges.
Coach: I do my best to remain aware of my intention in the coaching relationship. Usually before each coaching session, I make an intention to be present and to serve my client in the optimum way for them and for anyone else who might be affected by the decisions made.
Coachee: They are encouraged to use visualisation and to articulate their intention in order to manifest the life and livelihood that they would like for themselves. Part of this is acknowledging where one has control and where one doesn’t. This is also about being at ease with change, with uncertainty and exploring ideals in terms of qualities and attributes, as well as in terms of people or things. Relationships become more important than the material. Growth becomes more important than acquisition.
Dear reader, this is a brief summary of my approach to coaching from a psychospiritual perspective. So, I welcome questions and requests to be more specific about any particular areas mentioned or to offer examples.
“By taking care of the present, we can even transform the past.” Thich Nhat Hahn
What is the past? What is history? I would suggest that the past is only what we choose to remember, whether that’s what someone’s recorded in a history text or whether it’s our personal recollection of an event. The memory begins with a present experience after all and what we choose to remember about it is up to us, when we do that consciously. We also have a choice about how we use any memory to affect us in the present.
Of course there are some memories that become embedded in our subconscious and, where these are painful, for example as a result of trauma, that may require specialist intervention to bring them into consciousness in a form that can be dealt with. However, this is not what I’m addressing in this article.
When someone has upset us or done something that has harmed us, what is the best course of action for the benefit of our emotional wellbeing?
We can choose to distinguish between what we choose to remember about the facts and what we believe were the intentions of those involved. Rather than following the traditional route of seeking revenge, we can focus instead on transforming our approach to what happened and the consequences that resulted. How do we do that? By connecting compassionately with the perpetrator, whether that’s someone else or ourselves, we can begin to ease the tension around the situation. By understanding the needs in them that triggered the response that resulted in harm, we can begin to soften in our attitude and our perspective on our grievance.
What I’m suggesting is that forgiveness is a non-violent alternative to the more traditional, aggressive response of revenge. Forgiveness, whether directed towards ourselves or towards others, generates love and understanding rather than anger and resentment, feelings that only serve to prolong the suffering caused. So, forgiveness has to be more beneficial for our emotional wellbeing than seeking revenge or harbouring grievances.
A common misconception concerning forgiveness is that it “let’s us off”. In other words, that it somehow condones the harm that was done. This is not the case. Rather than deny or justify the suffering and wrong-doing, forgiveness is a way to understand what happened and to heal any negative consequences that still persist through feelings of resentment or grievance.
Forgiveness simply allows us to:
• Accept that what happened, happened.
• Have compassion for the perpetrator, whether that’s ourselves or someone else.
• Understand what triggered the misdeed, the feelings and unmet needs behind it.
• Choose to have an alternative perspective on it.
• Transform our pain.
“Only in an open, nonjudgmental space can we acknowledge what we are feeling. Only in an open space where we’re not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly.” Pema Chodron.
In coaching, holding a grievance against somebody can often show up as a block, stuckness or resistance to taking action. A grievance takes energy to hold onto and to feed those kinds of feelings, energy which can be put to much more constructive use elsewhere. So, it’s important to forgive from an energetic standpoint too.
Although it can seem counter-intuitive, it is perfectly possible to forgive someone else without needing to talk with them about the incident that resulted in harm. However, if we do feel ready to chat it through with them, it can be beneficial in helping to understand both points of views. Another advantage is that it allows us to openly and honestly reach closure on the event with the other person involved and to dispel the charged feelings associated with it.
Forgiveness is a process of transformation and some patience may be required. Whilst the need to forgive can present us with many challenges, the benefits are many and include: strengthening of character, release of energy and improved physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.
Perhaps some of you are familiar with Sir Ken Robinson’s video from 2006 where he talked, very memorably, about how schools kill creativity. In this, his latest TED talk, he urges us, in his characteristically funny and touching style, to shift from our current standardised learning system to one that is more personalised, creating learning environments where children’s natural talents can flourish.
For those of you who home educate, the ideas Ken Robinson presents may be very familiar and it’s heartening to see such proposals getting a more mainstream airing. But, does he go far enough, do you think, with his revolution?
This site seeks to explore the heart and soul of downshifting to a more sustainable, ethical and holistic way of living and working, in keeping with the needs of the planet, humanity as a whole and ourselves as individuals. (read more)
