(Rather listen? Turn up your speakers and click on the arrow.)
You’re right in the middle of your project or a client session, going full-out. Feels great, doesn’t it? Just being totally immersed in what you love. Almost as if you and your work are one — no separation.
On one level, that’s an amazing thing – the Zen concept of being one with your work. But on another level, fuzzy lines between you and your work can be a serious problem.
It’s about boundaries — where you end and your work starts. Keeping these clear is critical to maintain sanity and momentum in your business. You have to realize that you, the essential you, are separate from your work.
How this plays out in real life
Say you put on a workshop and just a few people show up. If your boundaries are clear, you know it’s the workshop that’s the problem. Some aspect of your workshop game plan needs improvement.
OK. Back to the drawing board. Time to examine what you did and ask for some outside perspectives. Maybe you feel disappointed or annoyed, but the world is not coming to an end. It’s just one workshop, after all.
But if the lines between you and your work are fuzzy, YOU feel like a failure. You think YOU’RE the problem. You feel ashamed or embarrassed, rejected, blaming yourself – all that crummy stuff that comes from believing that you ARE your work.
Now this personal failure takes a much bigger solution: a bunch of inner work to find and fix the issue that caused the failure. Meanwhile, your fears are multiplying about ever doing another workshop. It may be a long time (like maybe never) before that happens…
Do you see the difference? When you clarify that boundary between you and your work, some cool things happen. Like it’s so much easier to take a risk and try something new.
Because you’re not putting your soul on the line. You’re just trying a new thing. There’s not nearly as much at stake.
You can still give your best energy to the work you love. Just do it with the knowledge that you and your work are separate entities. Keep those lines clear and feel the freedom it creates.
What do you think?
