What do you have the capacity for today?
Ok – let’s be 100% honest. We are not in normal times. Our nervous systems are under pressure. There is so much uncertainty. Some days can feel really rough.
I know as entrepreneurs we are innately resilient – BUT – this past 18months has been a true test for many of us.
I’ve been looking at ways to meet ourselves where we are.
To find ways to move through, with and beyond any overwhelm and stuckness – into (if nothing else) forward momentum.
One of the most potent ways we can do this right now is asking ourselves.
What do I have the capacity for today?
And then giving ourselves full permission and autonomy to do just that.
Yes there are things we have to do that MUST be done – but that is not EVERYTHING.
So – if you are navigating a challenging season of ‘C’ life – pivoting your business, managing in lockdown, homeschooling etc etc –
What might it look like to only do what you have the capacity for?
The best part about this question and practice is that it has the power to help us NOTICE where we are pushing beyond our capacity in everyday life.
To see where society is pushing us beyond our capacity – to look at the wider societal structures and expectations that are enforcing this unsustainable way of ‘being’….
So many of the folks I work with have long, long, long to do lists and a deep sense of guilt and shame when day after day after day they just can’t tick off all the things. And it hurts my heart to know that it is not that they are lazy, incapable or incompetent, but that the expectations we have placed on ourselves are deeply unrealistic and unsustainable in themselves.
What I do know is when those lists are created with ‘full energy’ in mind instead of ‘achievement’ – it all gets flipped on its head. And then the ‘MORE’ is actually achieved anyway!
What do I have the capacity for today?
This simple question has the potential to empower us to work within our energy outside of these current times, and possibly even (finally?) create SUSTAINABLE practices, processes and changes to the things that no longer work moving forward in our larger society.
If as a collective we are individually and actively saying no to burnout, and exhaustion and YES to navigating our world with self-care and kindness. I can only imagine how our world might change!
I feel strongly we are in the midst of the ‘messy middle’ where we are untangling and unlearning the destructive hustle, patriarchal, racist, ableist culture we have been existing in for way too long. In our life and businesses. And it is a culture that I as a white, hetero-sexual, cis gendered woman, I experience a lot of privilege from. Which is the deeper part of why I want to be part of the ‘changing’, especially as someone with a chronic condition that means I simply CAN’T keep hustling! I don’t want to, I don’t want my clients too. I’m done!
Maybe the exact ‘exit strategy’ to navigating each day fully within our capacity ONLY, is not clear yet – but I can feel we are all more than ready for it. Ready to thrive in a more sustainable, ethical, equitable world of doing business and living life.
If this period of ‘C’ has taught us anything, life is too short to waste any more time and energy doing otherwise.
You can learn how to hear your energy and what your energy needs more clearly with the help of my 3 step process HERE.
