We’re well into the third quarter of 2022, and we’re focusing on the third core Ellivate principle of Harmonious Systems:
Harmonious Systems
You should run your business (not the other way around!). Explore where you can simplify and outsource your processes, so you can spend more time in your zone of genius and run the business with more ease and grace.
Many of us yearn for more harmony in our businesses and lives. We imagine a blissful state in the future where all systems are humming along smoothly.
Yet, how realistic is this vision? Can we ever really get there?
Running a great business (or living your best life) means you’re always evolving…you’re always making changes. Anytime you upgrade an existing business process, launch a new product or service, hire a new employee or vendor, or the myriad of other things necessary to evolve a business, you disrupt the status quo.
That disruption usually feels chaotic at first. After all, there was some order embedded in the way things were. Even if that order wasn’t the healthiest or most efficient, there is some comfort in knowing what to expect.
Because of this very human attachment to the known (and fear of chaos and unknown), you may find yourself avoiding change. You may not want to let go of the way things are and take those scary steps into the unknown.
What might shift for you, if you embraced the idea that chaos is a vital part of running a business and living a full life?
What if you realized that chaos is not in conflict with harmony, but a natural and necessary complement to harmony?
The path to achieving harmony isn’t often clear, pretty or easy. At times, it’s confusing, messy and hard because it requires us to disrupt existing systems.
I invite you to consciously work with chaos by exploring the following questions:
- What is the higher level of harmony that this chaos will ultimately help you achieve?
- How might you need to shift your expectations and mindset around chaos?
- How can you prepare yourself for the chaos? How will you support yourself and get the energy you need to navigate the hard parts?
If you’re feeling a sense of chaos in your business or life right now, if you find yourself in a confusing, messy or hard place, it doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It means you are on the path to something greater.
With deep love and gratitude,
Beginning July 2022, Ellivate is partnering with Fatima Mann and Brandis Rawls of Love and Healing Work to provide our members with a 6-month series, How to Leverage White Privilege in Business. Each month, we’ll share some insights from the important work that Fatima guides us through.
Be aware of this:
There are a myriad of artificial constructs that exist in our world, such as race, gender, and all the other labels society uses to put humans into discrete categories. Each label comes with its own heavy baggage of ideas, expectations and requirements.
Since these artificial constructs were created before we existed, none of us consented to them. Yet, they usually dictate who we think we should be (even if we are not aware of this). These constructs limit our freedom and hold us back from being who we truly are.
From an early age, we are taught not to trust ourselves and instead look to others to tell us what is best for us. Women, in particular, are conditioned to sacrifice ourselves for others and withhold what we need from ourselves. When we do this, we are not in consensual relationship with ourselves. We harm ourselves, which is how we ultimately harm others.
We cannot give other people true love, attention and care when we cannot give them to ourselves first. What might be possible for all of us, individually and collectively, if we learned how to be in consensual relationship with ourselves?
Try this:
Reflect on the idea of artificial constructs and your relationship with yourself by exploring the following questions:
- What labels or artificial constructs have you been assigned? For example, woman, mother, daughter, business owner.
- What beliefs and expectations come with each of these labels?
- How might these artificial constructs be holding you back from being who you truly are?
- How often are you not in consensual relationship with yourself? How often do you withhold what you need or want from yourself?
- How could you consensually engage with yourself and give yourself what you need more often?
