Welcome back! I hope you were able to get some time off over the holidays, and find a little pleasure and restoration.
I had big plans for getting work done on a few complex projects, and I ended up doing NOTHING. I had a dear friend in from out of town, we did some cooking and a lot of hanging out and yakking. The amount of “productive work” I got done was pretty close to zero.
And I feel great about that.
Most folks I’m talking to have been slow to get started in 2022, and I think that’s completely ok. Let’s talk about it.
#1: We need some rest
If you feel like you’re off to a “lazy” start to your year, please remember that what looks like laziness is often exhaustion.
The whole reason I started the Creative Fierce community in 2020 was that I encountered so many people who were distracted, exhausted, and pulled in a million directions. Working together, we didn’t “fix” all of those problems, but we did make them a lot easier to work with.
Rest is an integral part of work. When work is harder, the rest needs to be deeper.
If you took some time over the holidays but you still don’t feel rested, it’s completely possible you just need … some more rest.
#2: 2022 won’t look like 2021
Ever since the US and UK political upheavals in 2016, we’ve been in uncharted territory. And of course, the pandemic brought that to a completely new level of confusion and chaos.
It’s not actually smart to move quickly when you can’t see where you’re going.
Sometimes we need to move fast. And when we need to, we usually do. But our culture also glorifies speed (and growth) at all times and in all circumstances … and that’s not helpful.
2022 is going to bring more changes. Some of them (hopefully most) will be for the better. But they’ll call on us to recalibrate … again. We’ll need to rework our business models and refresh our audience and growth strategies.
That kind of work takes time and attention. And no one has an unlimited supply of either.
In business (and other things), I often advise, Don’t take shortcuts, they take too long.
Rushing into decisions in a shifting environment won’t save you time. So give yourself grace and permission to move more slowly than you’d prefer.
#3: When you can’t control the environment, focus on what you can control
Most of us are a complicated ball of PTSD right now. We faced inconvenience, stress, and perhaps illness from the global pandemic. Business ideas that we couldn’t get to work. Personal concern for our health and the health of our families. Grave concern about the environment, the economy, and our democracies. Many of us lost someone we love in the past couple of years. And the list goes on.
We also may be more aware of the deep, corrosive structural inequalities and injustices that hurt people.
Our environment right now is not a grassy meadow of unicorns and rainbows. But we still have work to do.
I always advise you to move toward safety when you can. If you can get to safer ground, do that.
But when we can’t correct the environment, we’re left with the option of getting stronger.
Find gentle, nontoxic accountability. Lean on your support networks. And be the person someone else can lean on, when you can.
Instead of running yourself to exhaustion on your hamster wheel, see if you can start to clean up your systems and make your life easier.
My friend Heather Thorkelson will be teaching a class in just a couple of weeks on how to do that — decluttering the business messes that keep us stressed out and tired.
If you run a business (big, small, or a one-person-band) I highly recommend it, because she’s incredibly smart about business and resilience. You can apply for that here — if you end up joining, I’ll see you in the first cohort.
And remember … even if you’re moving slow, you can still get there. I’ll be there (moving slowly) right next to you.
I’m looking forward to recalibrating my own systems and reconnecting with you in the coming year!
Sonia
