Why are we making this all so complicated?

Holly Gottlieb is recruiter & connector for purpose-driven businesses. This article is part of a Substack series exploring the intersection of consciousness, business and careers: https://www.wholecollective.net/

All the stress and the angst and the mental spinning, I think can pretty much be boiled down to the same thing… focusing our attention on what isn’t right in front of us.

Depression is worrying about the past. Anxiety about the future. I’m pretty confident that any meditation teacher, coach or therapist would agree with something along the same lines.

BE HERE NOW. It’s catchy for a reason.?

And MAN I know I get overwhelmed by it all. How much there is to do. How little time there is to do it.

If you haven’t heard of Human Design before, it’s becoming one of the most adapted tools in the self development world, and it’s definitely insightful. It helps having a very close friend who’s a pro.

Sophie Fletcher tells me I have all these channels (energy) coming out of my root centre, but that it’s not a defined centre…. Aka. I’m going to feel all this pressure to do, and go, and make it happen, but that feeling is never going to be satiated, and I can go mad trying to find that feeling. The trick is then being ok with the pressure, understanding I’m never going to do all the things that I feel pressured to do, and develop a relationship of trust with myself, knowing I’ll do as much as I need to do on any given day.

I’m going to show up every day and do my darn bestest, and THAT will be enough.

It’s a one day at a time kinda deal over here. I’ll say that 10,000 times more to be sure.?

But in all honesty, I really do think that is the trick here. You don’t need me to tell you that we’re all on overwhelm central. 16 inboxes, text threads, friends we need to catch up with, business outreach to do, scrolling on scrolling everywhere…

A TOTAL OVERWHELM OF INFORMATION ALL THE TIME.?

There’s a quiet revolution in just saying no.

No thank you. No.

I got told recently regarding relationships, ‘if someone is supposed to be in your life, there’s nothing you can do to stop it, and if they’re not, nothing you can do to force it.’

To some degree, I feel the same way about work. Maybe not in a total lack of effort way, because we need to do the footwork and take action, and it doesn’t suddenly arrive out of nowhere… but I do think it’s the way we approach our work in the world, that can lead us down mental hell holes of stress and worry and fear, or taking steady footsteps forward in the direction of our dreams.?

The only thing I have control over is the very thing right in front of me, nothing more, nothing less.

Every morning I meditate and ask to be guided by the next right action. That’s all. And if there is a moment of hesitation or doubt, may I remember to pause and allow the inspiration to guide me next. It really is quite that simple. I see a lot of people charging thousands online to coach you into the same thing.?I’ll take your money.

WHY ARE WE MAKING ALL OF THIS SO COMPLICATED?!

Because we are wired to do exactly that.

Until the quiet revolution arrives.

I’ve been putting off making a website for a couple of years. I kept thinking I couldn’t do it. It’s too hard, and complicated. And then last week, whilst working with Chris at The Gourmet Animal he asks me to build a one-off landing page for the business - Gourmet Food prepped for Burning Man check IT OUT.

And I do it in one day, and it’s so simple, and MANNN it’s so much easier doing this for other people, because in my own head I complicate the hell out of it.

So of course, I see that I can do it, it’s not that hard. And I finally make a website. And it gives me clarity in what I’m offering in the world. How I can get paid. And it was simply the next thing to do right in front of me.?

And that’s all this business building thing is. There’s so much to do, so little time. And all I have to do is show up to the next indication action. I don’t need to fill my head with all the steps beyond that, because that makes me (more of) an insane person. And it’s totally unnecessary, because I’m not there yet.?I’m here right now.

I don’t know where the money is coming from next, or who the next client I work with is going to be, but doing the action in front of me, will inevitably lead me there.?

HOW FUN THIS ALL IS.

And today that’s helping share an investor deck for a business that I think has got some serious legs. An EV management platform that is on the cusp of a $40bn industry. See the deck here.

I like the founder, I like what they’re building, they’re looking to raise $3.5m, and that’s the next action in front of me so I’m doing it. Whether it leads to anything doesn’t matter. Yes, it would be great if any intro led to investment, but that’s beside the point… the business aligns with my values, it falls under the work I want to be doing in the world (I said so on my website), I just need to do this now, and the next action after that will arrive when it needs to.

Can we just make all of this simple? Is that not what we’re all longing for in some way?

Simplicity?

This morning was a simple one. I had coffee with a butterfly.?

Rather than charging into the day with the 10,000 things I need to do, this one stopped me in my tracks on my 6am walk for coffee. There’s nothing that slows you down like having a butterfly sit on you in its' last moments of life.?

We’re all going to die. And that’s ok.

I don’t want to be racing to the finish line the entire way.

I don’t want to be worrying about all the things I didn’t do or missed out on.?

I want to be able to sit with the butterfly, not needing to be anywhere but here, knowing all I need to do is the thing right in front of me. And that in itself is showing up to every day and doing my darn bestest.

How present can we get? In this moment. Isn’t that the ultimate superpower of today?

I think so.

—Holly Gottlieb (Founder, Whole Collective)