There’s so much to consider in building a Feldenkrais® — or any — holistic practice!
When I was young and had a lot to do, I used to tell myself, When I get older, it will be easier because I’ll have more skills so things will take less time.
When I had more skills, I also had kids, and I thought, When they get older, it will be easier because they will be doing more things for themselves.
When the kids were older, so were my parents, and there was always something to think about with them, particularly after my Dad died and my mom came to live with us. Then I thought, This time is precious and when she’s gone, there will be time enough for things to be easier.
Well, my mom’s been gone for 10 years and guess what? It’s not easier, it’s just different. Remember how computers were going to free us up to do more of what we wanted? I know I don’t need to say more about that!
The truth is that everyone’s got a lot on their plate these days, and you can drive yourself around the bend if you don’t get a handle on it. If you’re self-employed, as most Feldenkrais® and other holistic practitioners are, in addition to everything else, your plate holds:
- Working with clients
- Improving your skills
- Finding clients
- Managing all the parts of your business that feel like “not my genius”
Not only that, you’re probably dealing with the worst boss in the world… because while you probably don’t give yourself enough direction, you almost certainly give yourself too many expectations and far too much criticism.
One of the most important things is to make sure that you’re working on the most important things!
That’s why I created this simple outline for you, so that you can set your priorities. You can use it to help you track what you need to do, keep the most important things fresh in your mind, and tick them off your list so that you really feel the progress you’re making. If you keep referring to it, you can keep yourself moving on the things that are most important, and I’ll bet you’ll find that almost everything else sorts itself out one way or another.
Start with a BRAINDUMP!
Transfer all the things that are clogging your mind and stopping you from getting anywhere on any of them to a piece of paper. Then you don’t have to remember them anymore. It sounds ridiculously simple, and it is.
This is the first step in getting started when you have too many things to think about. It’s also my secret for getting to sleep at those times when I’ve got so much to do that I don’t think I have TIME to sleep!
Now look at your list and divide it up into categories. Make a mark to indicate which things are important to your business and which are personal, etc. Think big-picture about this — make no more than 3 or 4 categories… if you can keep it to 2, so much the better!
Within each category, decide which things are most important. Prioritize them.
If you’re taking the Heart-to-Heart or Hero’s Journey program with me, MAKE SURE that work on that course is in your top 3 business items and that anything that’s a higher priority has a due date that’s close!! This is crucial for your business — you need to put your effort into the most important thing, and right now, that’s learning the skills that will make other efforts — intros, networking, emails, a newsletter — all that kind of thing — pay off. Therefore, you need to put that course ahead of many other things you could be doing when you think about its relative importance.
Transfer the top 3 things in each category to a new piece of paper. Make a guess about how long each one will take. For guesses about H2H and HJ course, figure 30-45 minute chunks.
Break each of your 3 items down into manageable bites… chunks you can complete in an amount of time you might be able to find in your schedule.
The key is in making each step do-able. Otherwise, you won’t do it!
Now look at your schedule. Where do you have those amounts of time? Pick off the top item from each category and find a place to put it in the coming week. If you can’t do it all in one go, chunk it down even further so that you can manage to make progress on it.
If you need clients and are taking a course with me, I strongly recommend that you allot all your extra slots to work on this course. It truly is the most important thing you can do at this time!
