Honour your flow

by on November 19, 2014

FLOWA lot of the advice that I’ve read for business success and productivity revolves around the idea of motivation and dedication to getting stuff done, no matter the weather.

On some level, this definitely resonates with me. Sometimes, you do need to push yourself a little. If you always followed your ‘I don’t feel like working’ whims, you most likely would get a lot less done, am I right? I know that for me, I can often push through the road blocks by just getting started. Like with this blog post – I didn’t really feel like writing when I woke up this morning, but let me tell you, once I got going, this post just streamed right out of me. Sometimes, you need to make space for your flow to present itself.

But something else that I have definitely been learning this year, sometimes the hard way, is the importance of going with your flow and honouring how you might feel at any given moment.

Honour your flow

So, we all can relate to not feeling what we have to get done. I’ve found personally that this can be very important to tune into.

Why?

Because if I push against it, the results of my forced action can leave much to be desired. Or I may be a lot less efficient with my time.

For example, in my work, copywriting is a task that I love, but that really requires creative energy, spark and of course, flow. When I’m in the zone, so to speak, the writing is easy and the content just comes out naturally. The finished product is awesome. The process was awesome. It just flowed, you know?

When I’m not in that zone, the writing process can be a lot more painful, and take me longer to complete.

Of course, there are times when you are working with deadlines and you don’t have the flexibility to honour your flow. In these times, you must leverage the other tricks you have up your sleeve to try to jumpstart that flow and circumvent a bad day, whether it’s to take a quick walk in nature or spend a few minutes meditating.

You might want to throw out some of your rules

Setting boundaries is something that I work on continually, but over the course of this year, I’ve learned that being less rigid with these boundaries is an important part of my effectiveness.

On the one hand, I feel that it’s really important that I say, take weekends off, or ensure that I schedule in time for myself that does not involve a computer in any way shape or form.

But I’ve also learned that when I’m in my flow zone – I have energy, I feel creative, I have ideas, I feel focused – whatever flow might mean at that time, I should go with it. Even if it comes on a Saturday, or in the evening after the work day is long done, or very early in the morning when I “should” be sleeping. As per above, allowing this to come through when it wants to is when it’s at its most powerful and potent, and when it can truly shine.

Then, by allowing for these extra work spurts, when I have the opposite feeling and I don’t want to do anything or I want to sleep in or I need some downtime and rest, the extra accomplishments from my flow time should hopefully help to step in and fill the gap.

Honour the universe’s flow

Other times, it’s not your flow at all that’s the problem. The universe itself is deciding to take the reins. Your email might go down. Microsoft Word might be constantly crashing on you. Facebook might not be letting you post.

These little work day glitches used to frustrate the heck out of me. I would pull my hair out and get so stressed.

But I’ve learned (or at least I’m getting better at!) acceptance of the present moment.

That email is not meant to be sent right now.

You’re supposed to take a break rather than continue writing.

It’s not the best time for that Facebook post to go up.

Trusting that the universe is just working to present you with the divine right time for the task.

On to you. Do you honour your flow, or do you prefer to stick to a schedule? What do you do when you have to get something done, but you’re not feeling it? Meet you in the comments.

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