The seas are rough this morning! I should probably leave the coffee alone, set aside any reading and meditate my way across the ocean and yet I type. Jared and I are watching our little island home shrink in the distance as we head off in the direction of the mainland. There isn’t much going on in Nantucket in the winter, a major selling point for me especially with Wild Bull just beginning. I have ample time to play in my studio, develop a website, research art shows and other marketing opportunities. I am incredibly grateful for that time, without a business partner or staff, crossing all the “t’s” and dotting all the “i’s” is both my creative and practical responsibility. Anyhoo…we are heading to Beantown for some much needed culture: grab some shows, historic walks, good eats in the North End (I know nothing of Boston and am very excited for Jared to share one of his favorite cities with me).
I had a perfect opportunity yesterday to practice infusing my personal values into the values of this budding business. The top billing value in life these days is SUSTAINABILITY. Not just sustainable earth practices but life practices: not overdoing it, less turning my life into a series of lists to simply be checked off, more savoring things and lingering in the details. This past week I took a job offer working for a hip chic on the island doing landscape design and installation (like it or not, Wild Bull is still on its way to sustaining my life financially and the small sales I have on Etsy are not going to pay the bills). I knew I would have to find something and found myself pickling between the ever promising big bucks of waitressing and finding something that matched my soul a little more. My connection with this woman and appreciation of what she does and how she does it made accepting the job a no-brainer. Immediately, I found myself in a state of worry and control (this is my default setting practiced for many many years)! “How would it all work out? I am going to have to make all my stock TODAY! We can’t go on vacation NOW I have a sales season to prepare for before going to work a full time gig!!”
The thing about my default setting is that…well, quiet frankly IT SUCKS! It’s no way to live a sustainable, savory life. I get all worked up into a controlling frenzy, Wild Bull becomes a job not a joy, I have no room for enjoying life with my partner or making calls to hear about friends and family, the future is damned…you get the drama.
I may not have a business partner in the practical sense but I have a lot of loving partnerships that help me sustain this transition into a more gentler way of doing things (including business). It was in leveraging these relationships yesterday that I found access to peace and sanity…I kept my standing phone date with my therapist, my phone date with my friend in Philly, I made plans to go walking with new friends and in the in-between time I did some work and packed leisurely. Default was telling me I needed to cancel everything so I could make stock in order to justify this vacation that falls just before starting the new job and balancing that with a growing business. “I’ll have to be making jewelry at 2am to make it all work!”
In practicing the value of sustainability I find that trust and faith are the magic ingredient. I mean really, when has my life turned to shit because I missed a list item? How do I KNOW my business will fail if I don’t do everything yesterday?! Welcome to some of the drama in my head. I am so grateful to the people in my life that let me unload that drama, who help me recover a sense of humor and gentleness. These relationships are turning out to be the best and most valuable investment in business development I have come across yet…
wildbulldesigns 