Become A Force Of Nature

“You’re a useless f****** failure!”

So spoke the part of me that views any lack of action as a weakness that must be savaged.

Like me you, you probably have a part of you that pipes up any time it’s possible you could be “doing more”. Let’s call it the Punisher – in that it punishes you with a torrent of shame and abuse any time you’re not perfect.

My Punisher has been pretty virulent lately. We launched the Greater Life Playbook just before Christmas. I’ve not posted about it until now.

I was tempted to give in to the perspective of the Punisher – to lambast myself for not setting up content automation and other such ‘obvious solutions’.

The Playbook and the video guides that go with it are a fantastically powerful way of creating a life that is thriving in all areas. Truth be told, I hadn't realised just how powerful it will likely be until the a few days ago (more on that in other posts this week).

So if the Playbook is so powerful, and will be immensely helpful to those who invest in it, why my silence?

Simple. My axe was blunt. My battery dead. I literally had nothing left – to the point where I woke one morning between Christmas and New Year and my body would not let me get out of bed until I’d allowed myself to rest for another hour - it was one of the weirdest experiences i've ever had.

Turns out the process of doing both a Masters and starting a start-up is quite demanding. I’d been running on fumes more than I cared to admit.

So rather than put out some Playbook marketing that was simply ticking off a ToDo item, I chose to gather wood for my log burner, to be a monster my kids had to rescue their teddies from and to dance barefoot in the sunshine.

I also decluttered my garden office from the moulding storage container it had become, into the kind of awesome space where I know I’ll be able to create weeks worth of incredible content in mere days.

The process of allowing myself to down tools…and to sharpen my axe has revealed a couple of things that are eminently worth sharing here.

Revelation One: Honour the season.

As soon as Jan 1st rolls round, it can be tempting feel like you should be firing on all cylinders, with all guns blazing and all systems go in pursuit of your 2023 goals and resolutions.

This actually runs counter to the natural order of things. We are still in the depths of Winter (in the northern hemisphere), which is absolutely a time for planning and visioning precisely because it is a time for going within, for slowing down and allowing the really important stuff to make itself known to you.

For me, this looks like taking this first week of January to continue ‘Sharpen My Axe’ - to review the year that was, and to (utterly shameless plug alert) use my Greater Life Playbook to set the Greater Goals I wish to pursue in 2023…and to define the Greater Habits that must become my daily reality as I pursue them.

Nature is not a factory. Factories are defined by predictable, linear production.

Nature’s productivity occurs in fantastic bursts – the bamboo that appears to be dormant only to grow metres in just weeks, or the tinkling brook that becomes a raging river in the aftermath of a downpour or glacial melt.

By aligning with the forces of nature…you become a force of nature capable of effortlessly achieving the kinds of ‘productivity’ most can only dream of.

Revelation Two: Honesty with self is non-negotiable

The reality is that by Christmas I was perilously close to fully burning out. I got to that place because I was unwilling to be honest with myself about how I was really doing.

The big issue here is that I had stopped creating little pockets of time and space where I could be honest with myself, where I could have recognised the signs of burnout.

So for me, as I head into 2023 I will be using my Greater Life Playbook to create an ecosystem of Greater Habits that guarantee the time and space for a daily ‘self check-in’.

The mission of Greater Life is too important, and my children and dog have been too patient not to have a George/dad whose batteries are fully charged and whose axe is razor sharp.

Luckily I have an amazing tool to support me in creating this reality. It’s called the Greater Life Playbook.

You can grab yours here?