Working on Foundations (Not Man) of Steel
If you've watched the movie you'll get the (Not Man) gag but if you haven't it may appear obscure. Let me explain...
How many men does it take to lift a steel? Well, it took 6 men to lift a steel to put into place for our new kitchen and dining room refurbishment. The good news is, this means that the timbers for the new roof can be put into place so the felt and tiles etc can then be organised. It’s all taking reassuring shape. Which I’m feeling equal measures of gratitude and relief for because I can’t pretend for one second that I’m not overjoyed that another building milestone has passed.
Last week I mentioned the impact of when chaos meets calm and my quick wins on how I work around the uncertainty and noise. Well that noise didn’t compare to this week’s noise and the dust. Oh, the dust. I’ve been knee deep in dust and yet my premise is to still carry on regardless, to work with what is (daily) and to try and become friends with the dust. That’s what a Zumba friend said to me but I’m still not sure about dust and friendship. Not just yet anyway. Ask me when it’s done.
Much like last week, the headphones have been great. Getting out with the dog for a break another and shutting myself in the office (with the door firmly shut) when necessary — is dreamy. However, there are times, as we’ll all feel, when you just need to have a moment or to distance yourself from the chaos that starts to unravel around you. When this happens, I retreat and give myself the headspace it needs and sit with why I’m feeling as I am and what if anything I can do to adapt or change the perception in my mind.
Sometimes there’s nothing for it but to escape to another building entirely, aka a coffee shop, or I do have the option of my husband’s company offices. Yet to have the need or necessity to jump ship I have been thinking about strong foundations. Not just in literal house build terms but, in our businesses, and lives too.
When our businesses are built on strong foundations of strategy, operations and planning, we can be flexible in times of challenge or for when a curveball hits. It’s not a man of steel that’s needed (Superman title reference) but thoughts of steel with malleable capacity. The core of what we are and do remains but the ability to manoeuvre and to lean in when necessary is what can be the difference to literally remaining stuck in the mud versus we’re going on a bear hunt (book title) and wading through in your welly boots and raincoat because you can’t go over or under the obstacle in the way. That’s just not how they work, because, quite often, the way ahead is front and centre through the haze of doubt and the stomach churning unknown.
I guess what I’m trying to say here in a longwinded and roundabout way, is that life isn’t plain sailing and most definitely doesn’t come in neatly wrapped packages. It’s messy. Much like the dust and building work going on in my house. It looks atrocious at first and whilst it’s happening. In fact, this is pretty much the case until you reach the virtually nearly done and done phase (I’ve been around more than one refurbishment of a property). But then it starts to pull together. You acclimatise to the situation and environment and work through it one stage and section at a time. You see the shape of what starts to look like the extension you planned, rather than a pile of crumbled bricks. The same goes for life and business.
The messy, spaghetti parts of life and business are tough and heavy. They weigh on your mind and can feel all and consuming until a solution presents, or until it passes, even if there is no solution, there’s always an end point in sight. Or at least an end. A point by which things cease or move on to a point of closure. You work out a way that you didn’t see before. A way that materialises almost as if it was there all along. It’s important to recognise that this doesn’t ever mean that you don’t have those days of sheer overwhelm or those days when all you see is a great big smear across your sunglasses that won’t clear. Obscuring the view of how to get around what’s going on. I’ve found in my time, for many things, ( although there is always an exception to the rule and situation) that it is in staying the course, seeing it through, persevering and edging forward whilst also giving yourself thinking time that gives you a healthy perspective and that offers you a next step of sorts.
In fact, when I work to deadlines for clients or even this Substack, I break down the work needed to complete to the due date agreed and work out what I need to do, what information I need to start and finish the job and map out the load versus the time available amongst other projects that are also running. This becomes my working foundation, a working brief if you like which is open to adjustments but that forms a first draft for the client and I to work on.
When I say, foundations of steel, I don’t mean that you have it all figured out either (because who does quite frankly) as it’s more around having enough in place to support change when it happens and when it’s needed — using your foundations as a springboard with which to metaphorically leap from, to navigate from, to forge & shift ahead in the right direction. Sometimes that can be a side step. Sometimes it’s a step back in order to go forwards and sometimes it’s a mish-mash of everything in order to gain momentum.
You see, it’s the importance of our foundations that keeps our house steady ( we need them after all) and the new steels that supports our build as a framework (otherwise the house would be unsteady from all of the weight) with which to work from. Even though this extension brings with it large multiples of dust (plumes of the stuff) that I can draw a smiley face in— I’ll still be enduring whatever comes my way — that and also keeping my headphones on for a little while longer.
NB: All artistic works are carried out by my creative, autistic son as part of his work experience connected to his college course.
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About Simply Amber Lou
Simply Amber Lou business copywriting services was founded by Amber Smith and is the home of business copywriting, content writing, course creation, copy power hours, copy packages, bespoke & bolt on services and copy audits, guided business copy teaching programmes, notebook designs and writing consultancy.
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You have hit upon a fundamental of life. With a solid foundation all things are possible. It is what everything else is built upon. While the things above what people see it is the unseen, without it all else eventually falls