all in good time
I am historically horrible at taking care of plants. Like, I'm so bad, plants tend to shrink away from me when I walk near. Sometimes, they just shrivel up and die -- it's like they see me coming and give up the ghost before I even have a chance to plead my case. And honestly, I can't even blame them.
The worst part is that I don't kill plants from neglect -- that would almost make sense. No, I kill them from too much attention. Too much love. I overwater them. I put them in bright sunlight for far too long. I prune them beyond recognition. And just when I think I've got the hang of it, they whimper and die. And it really doesn't matter what kind of plant there it is.
I've killed mint, people. And as far as I can tell, nobody kills mint.
The only plants I don't kill? The ones that I leave alone. That I come back to after weeks of neglect, and think, "Oh. Hell. I should probably water that." And then I water them -- probably not enough, or maybe too much -- and if they're lucky, I forget they exist again for another month. Those plants? Those plants get some time to breathe. Those plants thrive.
These days, I've been getting quite a bit of work -- many speaking requests, and even more excitingly, I've been picking up several coaching clients as well (need a coach? we should talk). This is fantastic news, as you can imagine, and I love every one of my clients, truly ... but I'm finding myself overwhelmed, because, there are so many other things that, in addition to taking care of clients, that They say I should be doing. You know how They talk:
- I should be sending out my newsletter more than just monthly.
- I should be researching all the new and different social media platforms -- because Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/whatever just aren't enough anymore.
- I should be creating new products -- not that I'm entirely sure what those products would be -- and I should be releasing them every month, minimum.
- I should be working my email list -- because email lists are everything -- and why am I not working my email list?
- I should be doing more video ... in fact, I should consider hiring a video crew and going completely professional with it, releasing daily videos.
- I should be creating profit-and-loss statements, calculating my EBITDA quarterly (huh?), updating my press kit monthly.
- I should be developing an annual retreat ...
... and that's just off of the top of my head in the last 20 seconds. There's so much more. It's enough to make me mental.
They make me crazy sometimes. Sometimes I wish They would hush.
But real talk: while there are many of those items above that I really, really want to do -- and plan on doing -- I need to remember that sometimes it's okay to not do All The Things. It's okay to spread the love out over time. That I don't need to do everything every day, right away -- not every item needs that much attention. Sometimes I can allow things to breathe a bit.
So, instead of shoulding all over myself, I'm going to keep my little list above close, but attempt not to fuss and fret over it. I'm going to call in help as I need it, and try to delegate a bit more (sort of like I turn lawn care over to the professionals. Because my neighbours would not want me to do my own lawn care, trust me). And when the time is right, all the appropriate shoulds will be attended to.
(And I'm also going to give myself some credit, because after 7 months since the storm, I'm gaining some momentum. And it feels great.)
Soundtrack: Where it's at by Beck