How do you know when you’re doing the right thing?
I always held a video game analogy to be true: “If you keep facing enemies, you’re going the right way.”
And generally that makes sense. I have no desire to grow moss in the cradle of comfort, and so I should be seeking out new and bigger challenges.
I started doubting that last month in the throes of burnout. In that confusion, I created this publication to make sense of what I was thinking and feeling.
In first post, I came to the conclusion that I needed to care for myself first, to put on my own oxygen mask, before my business’s.
In other words, I needed to build my business around the life that I want, rather than building my business so that I could then enjoy the life I dreamed of.
This was an extension of a false belief that I needed to earn my happiness and joy.
I decided I was having none of that and made a big, honkin’ list of everything I do and if I like it or not. Then for everything I didn’t like doing, I listed why I was doing it. Then I asked if the reason why supported the life I want to live.
As I realized that no, most of those things did not, I immediately began flagging projects for deletion.
One of those things was social media. I was scrolling way too much. It left me depleted, tired, anxious, depressed - all the wonderful things social media doom scrolling does to our human nervous systems.
Site blockers:
Greyscale on phone:
App timers:
I replaced a lot of my scrolling with walking and reading.
Spoiler alert: I felt more joy very quickly.
My breathing slowed, and got deeper. I could feel the stress draining from my body. I looked forward to dimming the lights in the evening and reading with a cup of hot tea.
It was a routine a bliss, honestly.
As my mind slowed, and as I continued culling behaviours and projects, it freed up enough space for my mind space to think about my next business.
I’m still at the helm of a small commercial mushroom operation, but I’ve been able to simplify it enough that I’ve started booking clients for my full-stack-small-business-mechanic-consultant-tutoring side hustle (still working on the name).
It has elements of consulting, but I also spend time teaching them.
It has elements of tutoring, but I also get in the trenches with them and build the systems.
I’m so excited by this work.
I was looking out the window across the North Channel to the LaCloche mountains over a foggy morning and I had a wave,a flood of energy thinking about this work. That’s something I haven’t felt since the early days of my mushroom business.
Perhaps that’s just the honeymoon phase of a business. It might be, I’m not sure. But there is a big difference between a commercial mushroom business and a full-stack-small-business-mechanic: the latter pays well, there is zero overhead, and the projects are short. I get to be in my flow state: problem solving, helping, building and teaching.
Slowing down: 1
Grinding harder: 0
I think I’ll keep this experiment going.
Slow, deliberate, and curious,
Shane
P.S. I’m taking new clients. If you have a small business you’re feeling stuck in, send me DM. I might be able to help.