I had the gardener round this week. I hadn’t realised how much the bush at the bottom of the garden had grown. Strictly speaking, it’s a hedge – but it looked more like a bush as it had tentacles growing in all directions!
I genuinely hadn’t noticed this big, unruly, sprawly thing at the end of the garden, probably because my focus was mostly IN the garden.
In fact, I didn’t notice how bad it had got, until the gardener had taken it down a few feet and tidied it up. It now looks like a hedge again, and most importantly – I can see over it and way into the distance and the rolling hills to Castle Hill, in fact.
Now, why am I telling you all this about my garden?
Well, it seemed to me to be a perfect metaphor for life.
How often in life do you just drift along – in a business, a job, a relationship – without really noticing what is going on. There may be little thorny patches here and there, perhaps things aren’t as perfect as they once were. Maybe little by little, you have lost focus on where you were going and you are just focusing on getting through the next day.
Do you know what I mean?
Back in the day when I worked in a container with Dracula as my boss, I was very focused on getting through the next few hours so I could go home and have a drink. So, I could forget about my job for a few hours. I had lost focus on any ‘end game’ and didn’t realise for some time, how bad things were.
It’s just easier to ‘go with it’ sometimes, isn’t it? And to not notice – or choose not to notice all the tentacles that are growing!
But even when things seem to be going well, or ARE going well, you still need to review on a regular basis. Because things change. Life changes. And where you thought you were going may not, in fact, BE where you are actually going.
The Importance of Reviewing
Today I had a review meeting with my amazing Social Media strategist, Carole Fossey. It was a great meeting, as always. And it was timely as only last week I made some decisions about my businesses which need to be reflected in the social media plan.
If we hadn’t had the meeting, Carole’s team would have continued to put out the great content that they already create and post. But it would not necessarily be attracting the attention of the people I now want to focus on. Namely – event organisers, jounalists or anyone else who needs a speaker. Whether that is for an event, for an article, a radio or TV interview, or a podcast. If you know any – point them in my direction.
I love speaking, as you may know, and already do a lot of it. And I want to do more. Nothing motivates me more than speaking to a bunch of people, inspiring them and having some of those people make a decision to do something differently to improve their lives.
Whether that is coming along to a retreat, joining our Find Your Why Foundation, or booking a strategy session with me to talk about what they need.
We held the social media review meeting at my lovely farmhouse in Huddersfield – where we also hold retreats and masterclasses. In fact, last weekend we had one here and announced the winner of the free place on our next Marrakesh retreat – Lydia Sama.
And we were talking about where I was 6 years ago, when I would never have dreamed I could live in an incredible space like this. Regularly reviewing and where needed, resetting (goals, actions, boundaries) has been an important step in getting me from where Iw as 6 years ago, to now.
And it’s not over. You see, it’s never over. until you check out! I don’t believe life is meant to be ‘easy’ where ‘easy’ means nothing ever goes wrong, or goes a different way than you planned. I also don’t believe it is meant to be tough all the time. Reviewing how far you have come, can help you see what you have achieved and where the next step could be.
So, my tip for you this week is to have a look at which of your bushes might need a trim. When was the last time you reviewed your job? What about your business – is it still going in the direction you want? Or what about your relationships – are there things there that need tackling?
Because, here’s the thing, once you review and reset, and clear up some things that have been growing unchecked, you will find that your focus is going to where it needs to be. You can suddenly see ‘the wood for the trees’. You can only see the wood, (the goal, or the challenge) when you are out of the wood looking at it, not when you are in the wood surrounded by the trees. Or the hedge!
If you have a sneaky feeling that things might be growing in an unfocused and random way in your business, or your life – drop me a line to Cheryl@cheryl-chapman.com and let’s see if we can get your hedge back in control!