What’s the fastest way to get better results in your business and have more fun doing it?
PLAY.
Not just taking time off and playing, which is great for every area of your life.
But also playing IN your business.
Being lighthearted, playful and curious.
Experimenting rather than meticulously planning.
Having fun rather than working hard.
Quick story:
I wrote 50,000 words of a novel in November during the NaNoWriMo Challenge — BUT I ALMOST DIDN’T DO IT.
Day One was miserable. Every sentence was met with judgement.
“No one’s going to read this.”
“That is so cliche!”
I never would have survived 30 days under that kind of pressure. So I dropped it.
I gave myself permission to write absolute crap, completely out of sequence, full of cliches.
“Lets just see what happens. I can fix it later,” I said.
I didn’t know that I could do it, but I knew that I wanted to try.
I made it as fun as possible, skipping around from scene to scene, indulging my every inspiration and whim, even when –especially when — it didn’t make any sense.
I wrote my first draft, and it was surprisingly fun.
Here’s how it looks to me (with a BIG credit to Michael Neill for nudging me to explore these questions.)
PRESSURE creates tension in the body and mind, which inhibits your performance, no matter what you’re doing.
It comes in many forms:
* Judging and comparing yourself to others
* Worrying about what other people think
* Deadlines
* Thoughts that you need to “do it faster” because “you should have figured this out by now”
* Over-analyzing and trying to figure it out
* Fear of failure
* Perfectionism
Anything that causes your mind and body to constrict and tighten is pressure.
The glorious thing about pressure is that it’s entirely made up!.
It’s not the looming DEADLINE that’s creating pressure…it’s your thoughts about what it means if you miss the deadline.
Think of a time when you felt a lot of pressure in your business. Did your performance get better?
If you didn’t feel pressure, what would that be like?
If the thought of no pressure gives you the heeby jeebies, you’re not alone.
When I bring this up with a client-playmate, they often say, “But if I don’t MAKE myself do things, nothing gets done!”
If you’ve been motivating yourself with pressure all your life, and it’s all you know to get results, it would make sense that you’d do it.
But let me ask you a question:
Have you ever DROPPED the pressure to see what happens?
I’m not talking about escaping into a pint of Ben & Jerrry’s Chunky Monkey and binge watching episodes of Lucifer.
I mean legitimately taking the pressure off.
No deadlines. No shoulds. No judgements.
Just what is.
Think of a time when you did something without pressure. Usually it’s a hobby or something that “doesn’t matter” or where you’re “not really doing anything.”
What was that like?
Is your performance and clarity enhanced when you dial up the pressure?
Here’s where my lovely savior Play enters the scene.
Without the pressure, the space expands. There’s room to relax.
You settle into your natural state of curiosity and creativity.
When you bring a sense of play to something, there’s nothing on it. You’re just seeing what happens.
YOU PERFORM BETTER.
You can still play the game like your life depends on it, even though you know it doesn’t.
Wishing you the most joyous play and ease today.
Steph
