April 28, 2023

184: 🚂 Train Tracks vs. Tightrope 🩰

26 minutes

It was a hot summer day, and I’m grumbling while dragging a rolling carry-on suitcase full of books to sign and send to the post office, starting to build resentment at how much time it was taking. After two hours of signing, writing notes, punching endless kiosk buttons, I start tsk taking myself, saying I should never do this myself again (I’m the owner of the business, after all! This is admin I should surely be delegating out!).

But alas, I ended up with one extra copy, curious at who I missed or how I miscalculated. And then . . . right as I was walking out, someone walked through the door that made my heart leap out of my chest—and making the entire errand worth far more than the time-price of admission.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways:

Doing things by the book doesn’t always leave room for the messy magic of serendipity. If we’re overly rigid about rules and business best practices, we miss the good stuff.

Tightropes in your business—such as too-tight deadlines, an over-booked calendar, or working in an overly rigid way—are precarious, in that a single misstep can throw you off. Consider parallel systems as back-up: intentionally create redundancy, back-up options, and schedule flexibility to yield greater stability.

As Julia Cameron writes: “Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough."

📝 Permission: Break the rules. Don’t always do things by the Big Ol’ Book of Business Best Practices. Give yourself permission to read or run an errand in the middle of the day (gasp!), maybe even doing a “$10 task” that relaxes your mind or opens you up to a magical moment of delight or serendipity.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Identify an area of the business that’s on a tightrope—only one person, one client, one stream of income—and therefore vulnerable to disruption. Look for way/s you can build redundancy and balance by implementing a new process, a backup person, and/or any other shift that generates greater stability.

📘Books Mentioned

Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell

Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

Life After College

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Article: The Pyramid Pose | Intense Side Stretch pose

Service: TaskRabbit

Song: You Can’t Rush Your Healing by Trevor Hall (YouTube, Spotify)

People: Kristin McGee on the web and Instagram; Trevor Hall on the web, Instagram, Spotify

Podcast: Hustle and Grace with Hilary Sutton

Peloton Yoga Class: 20-Minute Focus Flow: Shoulders with Kristin McGee

Community: BFF (apply promo code PODCAST)

🎧Related Episodes

176: 🍪What’s the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread in Your Business?🍌

178: 📕Book Club — 3 Big Ideas from SAVING TIME by Jenny Odell

084: Sprinkling the First 1,000 Serendipity Seeds of a Launch

092: Train the System, Then the Person

069: Epic Evergreen Email Sequences with Allan Dib

129: The $10K Work Framework with Khe Hy

💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »

🌟 Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review »

❤️ Join Jenny’s private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.

💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join

🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit

💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey

☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask

🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts

📝 Check out full show notes and links from this episode and share it with a friend!

https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/184

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

...more

View all episodes

By Jenny Blake

4.9

4949 ratings