Wednesday Wisdom: Zen Lessons for Busy Entrepreneurs

Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Companies

I suspect by now you have written your list and checked it twice and know who in your orbit has been naughty or nice so you can complete traditional holiday duties.

As a woman entrepreneur, if you don’t run a retail business that should be hopping busy right now, you might have extra time to make out another list related to client appreciation cards or goals for 2023; or if you are like me this year, with your first son getting married on New Year’s Eve in New York City, you are a bit zanier with a list that keeps multiplying.

Reading the above paragraph might make you feel crazy trying to keep so many pans on the fire, so it is important to create or grab moments of Zen when you can. I don’t mean the kind of Zen that aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation (although that sounds amazing), or perfecting your personhood (a definition in Wikipedia), but rather a relaxing spot, time, or space among the wildness to breathe deeply, release your stress, and relax, if only for a short while.

My gift to you this holiday season is sharing a few vital lessons I’ve learned as a lifelong event planner to help slow your pace or panic this week:

* Sit for a moment and visualize how you want your family or guests to feel when they arrive, stay for awhile and eventually leave your house. If you want people to be joyful during the visit and eager to return, then make sure you do all you can do to ensure that happens by setting the scene, tone, and your own energy.

* If you are overwhelmed with details, write them down. Don’t keep them ruminating in your mind with no space to be seen or remembered. Jot everything you need to do on a list – a written list – so you can take the confusion out of your head and into a visible state. Writing down duties, relieves one’s mind of forgetting something important and seeing the list make it feel more doable.

* Give yourself time every single day to do something that only pleases you. For me, that’s biking or running every day, no matter the length of my list or how low the temperature goes. It might be something different for you but by etching out time that brings us joy will help decrease the stress and in turn build up our hearts full of peace and love.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is meant to calm you down, make you see everything is possible to accomplish, a reminder to do what you love in the midst of too much stress or work, and to set the tone for the type of holiday you want to experience with or without guests. 

I hope you give yourself the gift of Zen from now until January 2, 2023 when we can revive our love for business and work to the fullest. Until then, breathe, relax, and enjoy your holiday. I hope it is a blessed and peaceful one in many wonderful ways.