I’ve been telling myself (weekly) I need to blog. These are unprecedented times for our generation, deserving conscious consideration® and in-depth reflection. I’ve been telling myself I, like so many other small business owners, need to remain engaged and proactive. If at all possible, I need to enable my peers and communities as well, so we can learn, support and get a boost from each other. I’ve been telling myself, while uninvited and horrible, this hiatus may be a good opportunity to re-set and begin again with greater clarity and resolve. It’s one of those lemonade from lemons moments. I’ve been telling myself all of that.
None of that has happened.
Things are happening, but not those things. Those are things I wanted to happen. Instead unwanted, unplanned things happened.
What kind of unwanted things? First up was an anxiety inducing wave of being overwhelmed. Putting aside the enormity of ‘Rona (thank you to James for personifying the pandemic), there was the tidal wave of “We’re in this together” and “Here’s what we are doing” and “Tips to handle this” coming at me as emails, posts, blogs, podcasts, webinars, news updates, discussion thread and commercials. Organizations I had not heard from in years were compelled to share their COVID Disaster Plans. Instead of inspiring and encouraging me to solider on, it forced me to sit at my desk wrapped in my anxiety blanket.
To make matters worse a lot of those messages struck me as wildly inauthentic or inappropriately opportunistic. I’m all for pivoting and flexing your business to keep it relevant. However, if the intention is “I can make a buck off of this” then odds are good that vibe will come through. Suddenly everyone could help and support, which is my stomping ground, but with so many instant experts offering services and advice everything had a slightly slimy feel to me.
Here’s another thing that happened, all of the permission to be a couch potato turned me into one. No joke, bring on the chips.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not shy about advocating a “couch day” to help rebalance the demands we’re under. But when it becomes a “couch week” or even a “couch month” it’s intervention time. Like microwaving your leftovers in a plastic container: yes, you can do it, but you probably shouldn’t. I found all of that inactivity led to an expanding sense of being uninspired. Even the things that typically get me fired up only got a lame puff of smoke from my internal engine. I had a couch potato habit – physically, creatively, emotionally and mentally.
The next thing that happened was frustration. Not the kind of frustration you feel trying to remove a splinter, the kind a toddler feels when they want a lollipop and Mom says, “No more lollipops today, but you can have grapes.” I don’t want no stinking grapes. I want a freaking lollipop, preferably one that has a Tootsie Roll center.
It felt like everything I tried was met with adversity or a roadblock or red tape. The world had turned against me and I was getting cranky about it. Full disclosure – at this point I sent myself to the couch to settle down. A little Lock-Down Time-Out if you will.
As this continued, I was well aware that I actually have something which people might find helpful: Maple. I mean we built it to assist people with their wellness efforts. If the pandemic wasn’t impacting how people were managing their self-care and personal growth, I can’t imagine what would.
With all of the other THINGS happening I couldn’t figure out how to present Maple in a way that was authentic and inspiring and helpful. So I stewed about it. For days. Probably weeks. Finally, I gave up. Literally. I decided to do nothing. I turned my attention to getting my garden going. I gave up on fighting the things. I surrendered. Which is when new things began to fall into place. (Whew!)
Like you, I’m still not fully in charge of my timeline. I can’t predict my business trend with any sort of accuracy. To this day, there is no ground turkey in the store. I can’t influence, never mind control any of those things. But I can control what I offer to help others in this difficult time, so that is what I am happily putting my energy and attention into.
We’ll start with this: use Maple for free for 90 days, including the upgrades. Seriously. Pick and choose the parts to help you navigate the crisis or simply get you through the day. (Select All Access Pass in the Maple Store and use coupon code: MapleCOVIDSupport2020. Redeemable until 8/31/2020.)
I’ll add this: not sure how to use Maple or what pieces might be most helpful? Let’s do a one on one tutorial and we can talk about how you might use them. Maple was built to be super flexible so let’s find the way it works for you.
No charge. No sales pitch. Just options that can help.
Come on, join me. Let’s get off the couch.
#MeetMaple #MakingTheMostOfCOVID #InItTogether
Christine
Maple
Scott