Connecting Wisely - Simple Ways To Improve Productivity
   

Everything is connected to everything. Or, as T. Harv Eker, author of The Secrets Of A Millionaire Mind likes to phrase it, “how you do one thing is how you do everything.” That’s encouraging because it means that when one area of your life is stuck, the solution can be found in an area where you already have some insights.

Think about the parallel between the way we relate to food and our inner beliefs about business management. Just as we know there is more to business than the bottom line; instinctively we know there is more to food than its biological effect on our body. Yet, despite good intentions to live a balanced life, when the day-to-day pressures trigger certain belief buttons, things fall apart. Why?

Scarcity - If you watch the news scarcity may be a belief you have unconsciously absorbed despite your abundance mantra. You might also have accidentally absorbed this belief if a sibling ever got the last cookie instead of you. How is your scarcity button triggered? Well, the price of gas goes up and suddenly you have an overwhelming fear that there’s not enough. Enough what? The list can expand from money for gas, to gas, small business loans, viable contacts, time, reasonably priced office space, honest people, food, health and, when the button is really pushed, “I’m not smart enough”.

Hoarding - A scarcity belief leads to hoarding. You stop referring people, make do with inadequate office space so you can’t expand, stop taking courses to save money, don’t send in applications for grants or loans because you don’t have enough time and you won’t get one anyway because there’s not enough money to go around, and you view everyone as using up your time and/or money.

Weak Decisions - Paralysis results. Soon, the only business networking you do is to meet at the local coffee shop to bemoan the state of small business in Calgary. Result: you make business decisions from a place of weakness rather than strength. Result: your business begins to stagnate. If I can get really personal for a moment, it’s more than a bit like constipation.

Why Do We Believe in Scarcity? It is curious how we invent ways to maintain a scarcity belief, even when we have access to abundance. Rather than enjoying the abundance, we break food down into its components. Rather than eating oranges, we eat proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and micronutrients. Did you get enough copper today? We almost need a nutrition degree to understand the labels on cans. If they put any more information on food labels they might have to design a microchip to contain it all. Please, may no one take that last statement as a niche opportunity!

Meals are becoming an adventure in mathematics rather than a mindful and nourishing social experience. Eating has become an un-wholey experience where science breaks food down into its smallest components and we feel we have to pay attention to every micronutrient daily in order to be healthy. The information has its place yet so often we let the chart tell us whether we have eaten well, rather than our sense of health and satisfaction.

We do the same with our business activities. We break it down into marketing plans, create charts in Excel, recite affirmations, paint walls and we feel we have to pay close attention to every detail in order to be a successful business person. Again, these activities have their place. However, sometimes they keep us so anxious and so focussed on the clients we don’t have yet, that we have no time to connect with our true business - the person sitting in front of us.

When you spend all your time micro-managing from a scarcity mind-set you lose your connection to why you began the business in the first place. The truth is when you put junk thoughts into your mind there is no room left for effective thoughts of growth and success.

The Three Connections Used Wisely - How do you overcome scarcity thinking? The answer is simple. You replace it with the truth. You definitely have enough smarts, resources and connections.

Begin with the smallest action you can take in order to overcome paralysis. Start with the little stacks of business cards you haven’t filed yet. Call one of them every day. Connect. Begin. At the end of the conversation ask, “Can you think of anyone else I could call? Thanks!” At its essence, creating nourishing, sustainable business relationships is no more complicated than that. Begin with the next step. Begin with the person in front of you.

As you connect with others, you will also have information they may need. Share it. This overcomes hoarding. Deepak Chopra on his CD, Creating Affluence, says that, “the best way to make money is to help others make money.”

And, just wait until you try this. For seven days, every time you hear yourself say “there’s not enough __________” immediately change it to “I have enough __________.” Then notice what opens in your life. You might think of someone to call, meet someone with the information you need, drop a few things from your list and, most exciting of all, you will realize you already have all the resources you need. It will be the most life-giving cleanse you’ll ever experience. You’ll also be a lot more fun to be around at the coffee shop.

Begin. Call the next person. Eat the whole orange. Not simultaneously. Then take the next step. You know more than enough to nourish yourself and your business. Think about it. There is enough.

Fenna A. Schaapman, BSC, Solid Ground Energetics, helps individuals invent their future. You can request a free report on Making Peace With Food at 403.850.5836 or visit www.solidgroundenergetics.ca